Dr. Olisa Agbakoba, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria(SAN), has said the poor welfare of judges in the country is an incentive to corruption. Agbakoba made this disclosure while fielding questions from journalists on Monday during a press briefing on the state of the nation. When asked to comment on the propriety of money exchanging hands between judges and lawyers, Agbakoba said the question should rather be ‘how did a judge get into the position where he would need to seek financial assistance from a lawyer’.
Making reference to the case of Dr. Joseph Nwobike (SAN), who was said to have given N750,000 to Justice Mohammed Yunusa, whose mother was said to have had a kidney problem, Agbakoba said the last thing any such judge would be thinking about was the Code of Conduct for Judicial Officers. In his words, Agbakoba said,“You don’t expect that a judge whose mother is dying would be thinking about Code of Conduct. I don’t think so. If a judge is in a situation where his mother is dying, he will take money from anybody and lose his job. It doesn’t have to be from a lawyer. But the issue is, why would he be in that sort of position in the first place?
“When my father was the Chief Judge in the old East Central State, to even attempt to approach our gate if you’re a lawyer could land you in jail. I remember the late Justice Kayode Eso, who was my dad’s friend, saying that he would refuse to accept a Christmas hamper from me, but he would accept a card wishing him a happy birthday. But we also know that moral values have changed. Part of the challenge is, why would that judge be in a situation of that type of helplessness? That is the underlining question. If you ask the late Eso, he will tell you it’s wrong to help a judge in need, but in his time, they were properly funded; everything was in place”.
