For Festus Keyamo: Heavens May Not Fall but the Sky Can Recede

By Chidi Anselm Odinkalu

Those– like Festus Keyamo– living under the incorrect guarantee that the paradises will not fall, gaze in the incorrect instructions.

There are 2 various expressions that demonstrate how deeply courts, judges and political leaders are inter-mingled in Nigeria today. When political leaders want to indicate how deeply their control of the courts runs, their dialect is mirth: “litigate!” And to commemorate an unlikely result nabbed through excessive propinquity to judicial bathrobes, they celebrate with “paradises will not fall!”

These are 2 sides of Nigeria’s appealing currency of impunity. Its remit runs all over– the executive, legislature, judiciary, administration, universities, contractocracy, faith organisations, civics. Even the uniformed services are not excluded in the rat race for impunity. Those who have it wish to increase it; those who lack it seek its face.

In the previous week, the dispute on impunity in Nigeria has actually centred around the judgment on 5 November 2026 by Peter Lifu, a judge of the Federal High Court, nixing the slate of prospects of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) for the 2027 basic elections. It is the most current– however by no suggests the just one– of a multitude of rather amazing judgments by a judge who has actually established a genius for being the location referee in the “limitless household quarrelsof Nigeria’s political leaders.

Much of this most current debate has actually concentrated on the text of what Peter Lifu chose however the problem with this case precedes its result. It is the proof around it of what can take place when judicial administration is caught.

This case started on 2 September 2025 in the court of Emeka Nwite, another judge of the exact same Federal High Court. The plaintiff was one Nafiu Bala Gombe, who looked for judicial acknowledgment as the rightful nationwide chairman of the ADC. To accomplish this, he asked the court to de-recognise David Mark and Rauf Aregbesola in the functions of nationwide chairman and secretary respectively of the celebration.

A procedural objection by the celebration took a trip all the method to the Supreme Court, which picked 30 April 2026 to return the case to Justice Emeka Nwite for hearing on its benefits.

4 days after that choice, on 4 May 2026, Nafiu Bala Gombe provided a letter to the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, John Tsoho, inexplicably grumbling that the case before Emeka Nwite had actually suffered “extended and excessive hold-up” and asking the Chief Judge to move it to another judge.

Extremely, the date on this letter was 4 April. That was almost one month before the Supreme Court chose the appeal. That did not make sensible sense.

The day after getting Nafiu Bala’s transfer demand, on 5 May 2026, Chief Judge Tsoho transferred it to the attorney for the ADC, Luka Musa Haruna, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN.

In an action dated 11 May and copied to the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Luka Haruna stated Nafiu Bala’s demand was “a pain in the neck effort” to impugn the stability of the trial judge. Rather, he looked for compliance with the order of the Supreme Court to return the case to Emeka Nwite, together with sped up hearing of the case.

3 days previously, on 8 May, upon being informed that Nafiu Bala had actually composed to the Chief Judge to request the transfer of the case to another judge, Emeka Nwite adjourned the matter forever to wait for the choice of the Chief Judge.

In the middle of this craze, on 14 May 2024, the National Judicial Council (NJC) suggested 12 judges to the president of Nigeria for elevation to the Court of Appeal. Among them was Emeka Nwite. 6 months later on, that suggestion still waits for the president’s attention and Emeka Nwite still works as a High Court judge.

The political significance of judicial power is not in doubt. That is exactly why it requires to be saved with care, not weaponised with recklessness.

On 19 May, Chief Judge John Tsoho dealt with a fresh letter to Luka Musa Haruna SAN in which he observed that the suggestion of Emeka Nwite for visit to the Court of Appeal “makes up a stepping in occasion that makes the reassignment of this fit unavoidable.”

The Chief Judge notified the legal representative that he had “for that reason, reassigned this match to Hon. Justice P.O. Lifu for sped up hearing.” He provided no factor for why it needed to be Peter Lifu.

At this time, Peter Lifu was currently commanding another case looking for the de-registration of the ADC. On 22 May, the Court of Appeal provided an order “remaining even more procedures” because case. That was a simple 3 days after the Chief Judge selected to send out to the very same judge yet another case looking for basically the very same result. He took no notification.

On 15 June, in defiance of the instruction of the Court of Appeal, Peter Lifu released judgment de-registering the ADC. Why then would he sit to choose the management of a celebration that he ‘d purchased de-registered?

2 weeks previously, on 1 June, in a four-page letter to Chief Judge John Tsoho, National Secretary of the ADC, Rauf Aregbesola, opposed the reassignment of the case stating, to name a few things: “we have major issues concerning the reassignment of politically delicate matters including opposition celebrations to a repeating group of judges of the Abuja Division, especially, Hon. Justice Peter Lifu …” The letter called 2 other judges amongst this list. It likewise implicated the Chief Judge of “administrative disturbance” with the procedures and of weakening complete compliance with the choice of the Supreme Court. The Chief Judge took little notification.

To be sure, the ADC was not alone in observing the pattern of project of political cases by the existing Chief Judge of the Federal High Court. Law Akhigbe, who has actually evaluated the pattern, openly questions “how many politically explosive cases appear to discover their method before the very same judge”, and concerns that “when a judge consistently discovers himself at the centre of politically substantial conflicts, analysis undoubtedly follows.”

He is not alone. On 28 July 2026, the Court of Appeal reversed the choice of Peter Lifu to de-register the ADC, implicating him of the greatest level of “judicial impertinenceand calling him a “misfit on the bench.” The NJC, which has actually satisfied ever since, was unconcerned; nor, it appears, was Chief Judge, John Tsoho.

Happily, Peter Lifu’s newest judgment accomplishes the very same end that the Court of Appeal reversed in its judgment of 28 July.

In action to this most current getaway by Peter Lifu, Aviation Minister, Festus Keyamo SAN, signed up with the “paradises will not fall” gangin uppercase. Babafemi Ojudua previous Senator and governmental consultant, reacted to him attentively, welcoming him to appreciate the nation.

In a different reaction, Olusegun Adeniyi argues that “when a minister of the Federal Republic, and a highly regarded SAN, informs critics to keep peaceful about a judgment with this history, he is not protecting the judiciary.”

The political significance of judicial power is not in doubt. That is specifically why it requires to be saved with care, not weaponized with recklessness. The rate of stopping working to save it can be high.

The index case, naturally, was Nazi Germany. Ernst Fraenkel advises us in The Dual Statehis timeless research study of Adolf Hitler’s topple of democratic organizations causing the disaster of the Third Reichthat “administrative and basic courts helped in the accomplishment of this condition …, the function being the accomplishment of a political goal.”

When Kenya enacted governmental elections at the end of 2007, their judiciary was extensively acknowledged to be “developed to serve the interest of the president and might not be depended pass unbiased judgments, especially where the president was included.” The political leaders looked for to settle their electoral conflicts in eliminating fields.

With the nation gazing down the edge of the precipice, they lastly consented to draw back. The cost was a clear out of the judiciary. In 2010, they started a re-set under a brand-new Chief Justice whose record consisted of political detention and exile. He had actually never ever sat formerly as a judge.

Those– like Festus Keyamo– living under the incorrect guarantee that the paradises will not fall, look in the incorrect instructions. They need to fear rather for what might occur to the ground beneath them when some judges and their political clients lastly attain the objective of rendering the courts unimportant with a succession of toxic choices. The last minutes as the earth satisfies its anger and the skies decline in one terminal ‘woosh!’ might be even worse than a collapse of the paradises.

–An attorney and an instructor, Odinkalu can be reached at