NJC must act on Justice Lifu

Last Monday, June 15, may yet go down in the annals of Nigeria’s democratic journey and legal history as a day of profound infamy. It was a day when the established constitutional order of judicial hierarchy was treated with utter contempt by a judge of the Federal High Court.

In delivering a judegment that has now plunged the legal ecosystem into avoidable turmoil, Justice Peter Lifu chose to look the other way while an explicit, subsisting order of the Court of Appeal stared him in the face. This brazen act of insubordination represents judicial overreach taken to a dangerous extreme, threatening the very foundations of the rule of law.

The crisis emanated from a suit filed by the Incorporated Trustees of the National Forum of Former Legislators against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the Attorney-General of the Federation, and five political parties: the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Accord Party, Action Alliance (AA), Action Peoples Party (APP), and Zenith Labour Party (ZLP). The plaintiffs approached the lower court seeking the deregistration of these parties, arguing that they had failed to satisfy the electoral performance thresholds stipulated under Section 225A of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and relevant provisions of the Electoral Act.

As proceedings advanced at the Federal High Court in Abuja, defence lawyers repeatedly drew the court’s attention to the fact that the subject matter was already before a higher court, urging a stay of proceedings. The legal principle is elementary: a lower court must defer to a superior court once an appeal has been entered. The dispute reached a critical juncture on May 22, when the Court of Appeal, sitting in Abuja and comprising Justices Mohammed Danjuma, Adebukola Banjoko, and Oyejoju Oyewumi, formally intervened and directed that all proceedings before the high court be halted pending the determination of the issues before it.

Yet, in a bizarre defiance of judicial hierarchy, Justice Lifu went ahead and delivered judgement. He ordered INEC to immediately deregister the five political parties, strip them of their rights to participate in future elections, including the 2027 general elections, and cease all official correspondence with them.

While not the only party affected, the ADC, which has recently consolidated its position as a leading opposition voice in the country, appeared to have been specifically targeted. As such, this judgement effectively set in motion a mechanism capable of derailing the multi-party framework ahead of the next general election.

Thankfully, the Court of Appeal acted swiftly to arrest this drift towards judicial anarchy by ordering an immediate stay of execution of the judgment.

More significant, however, was the scathing language employed by the appellate panel in rebuking the trial judge. The panel rightly observed that the decision to proceed despite an express appellate order was a “brazen violation of the hierarchy of the courts and the 1999 Constitution.” Invoking clear Supreme Court precedents, the appellate court characterised Justice Lifu’s conduct as “the highest form of judicial impertinence,” reminding the legal community that the apex court had long established that any judge who acts in such a manner “is unfit for the bench as it amounts to judicial rascality.”

While the appellate court must be commended for asserting its supervisory authority and protecting the integrity of the bench, the matter cannot be allowed to rest there. This episode has once again placed the Nigerian judiciary on trial before an increasingly sceptical public. Nigerians are watching closely to see whether the institution possesses the moral courage to purge itself of elements that bring it into disrepute.

It is the considered position of Daily Trust that the registration and deregistration of political parties remain administrative functions vested solely in INEC by the 1999 Constitution and the Electoral Act. The court system must resist the temptation to usurp administrative prerogatives or allow itself to be used as a tool by political actors seeking to shrink the democratic space and turn Nigeria into a de facto one-party state.

History recalls with pain the ignoble role played by rogue judicial orders in truncating Nigeria’s Third Republic in 1993. The nation cannot afford to be led down that catastrophic path again by reckless actors on the bench. The actions of Justice Lifu demonstrate a worrying willingness to disregard the very constitutional guardrails that hold our democracy together. To allow such conduct to go unpunished is to invite a total collapse of institutional discipline.

For these reasons, Daily Trust calls on the National Judicial Council (NJC) to act swiftly and decisively by removing Justice Peter Lifu from the bench. A half-hearted reprimand or an administrative slap on the wrist will not suffice. The NJC must make a clear example of this infraction to serve as a potent deterrent to other judicial officers who may be tempted to subordinate the rule of law to extra-judicial interests. The leadership of the judiciary must act now to restore public confidence, preserve the hierarchy of our courts, and protect the integrity of Nigeria’s democracy.

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