Diepreye Alamieyeseigha saw himself as a good student of politics. He believed in the separation of powers as a principle of government. He once gave a lecture on the subject, echoing the time-tested principles of the French philosopher, Montesquie. The executive should be separate from the legislature, the legislature from the judiciary, and the judiciary from the others.
When he became Governor of Bayelsa State, Alamieyeseigha did his best to observe this principle. But he also had to come to terms with the fact that he was the first civilian Governor in a virgin state. Nothing was in place, as far as the structures of democracy were concerned, and he felt obliged to work overtime.
His relationship with the Bayelsa State House of Assembly, to start with, was cordial. He ensured the completion of work on the administrative complex of the Assembly, confirmed its functionality, and gave a listening ear to the proposals put forward by the first Speaker of the House, Right Honourable Heineken Lokpobiri.
He readily endorsed his signature to the idea of constituency projects, and did his best to relate well with each individual member of the House. He equally attended the formal commissioning ceremony of the complex. Standing alongside Chief Melford Okilo, the Governor supported the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Right Honourable Umar Ghali Na’Abba, at the formal tape-cutting ceremony.
In like manner, on Friday, 21 July 2000, Alamieyeseigha formally commissioned the Bayelsa State High Court complex at Onopa, Yenagoa. An epochal event, it was like standing on the threshold of history. Koripamo David Ungbuku was Chief Judge of the State, while Clinton Ayabowei was Commissioner for Justice and Attorney-General.
The construction of the complex was started as a federal project. It was inherited at 30% completion from the previous Military Administration. Determined to propel the dispensation of justice, the government set out to fence the premises, for a start, and provide comfortable accommodation for judges, magistrates and judicial staff.
For the first time since the creation of the state, the judiciary was receiving the attention it deserved from government. Throughout the state, in all the eight local government areas, high court buildings were being structurally upgraded and renovated. Government also thought it wise to provide vehicles for judges and magistrates. Some of them even rode to that occasion in the new cars acquired for them.
As Alamieyeseigha put it, the government had it as an article of faith that, “for judicial officers to dispense justice without delay and in accordance with the ethics of the profession, they should not want. To this end, judges and magistrates of the state judiciary, who were hitherto without residential quarters, have been provided with accommodation befitting their status.”
The government equally released funds for the purchase of law books to further enrich the library of the state judiciary. The Ministry of Justice was also provided with the first set of computers to increase productivity. To crown it all, the high court complex in the state was being commissioned for use.
“We have embarked on these programmes for a reason,” said the Governor. “Our thinking is that, if those who dispense justice are adequately motivated, they are more likely to uphold truth and the rule of law. They are more likely to protect the ordinary man from inequity and injustice. And they are more likely to be dependable custodians of the hallowed provisions in the Constitution.
“The Bayelsa State government believes in nurturing adequate co-operation with the judiciary, because it is our belief that the separation of powers amongst the three arms of government as demanded by the Constitution is to ensure division of labour for the promotion of efficiency and effectiveness in the administration of a single government presided over by a chief executive”.
Members of the state judiciary, as epitomized by Ungbuku and Ayabowei, had repeatedly demonstrated maturity and patriotism in the discharge of their duties, and Alamieyeseigha felt duty bound to commend them especially because, in his considered opinion, the administration of justice was best achieved when there was mutual understanding and absolute co-operation between the executive arm of government, the legislature and the judiciary.
“The work of a judge is a sacred one”, said the Governor. “Judges have enormous powers. They are men of conscience. They have the power to kill and the power to temper justice with mercy. They have the power to imprison and the prerogative to acquit. And that is precisely why judges must not abuse their powers. The role of judges in the administration of justice is, therefore, to decide cases without fear or favour, and to uphold the rule of law”.
On his part, Ayabowei knew too well that, as the third arm of government, the judiciary remains the last hope of the common man in his quest for justice. In consideration of its unique position, the Nigerian Constitution of 1999 made the judiciary self-accounting. Bayelsa State was one of the few states in the country that implemented the principle of self-accounting to the letter, with Clinton Ayabowei in the saddle as Commissioner for Justice and Attorney-General.
One of the major problems easily cited by critics of the judiciary in Nigeria is that justice travels on a slow coach. As the saying goes, justice delayed is justice denied. It was time to disabuse that notion. The only way to do that successfully was to dispense cases with dispatch.
Up to that point, the absence of federal prison facilities in the state militated against the administration of justice in Bayelsa. Accused persons awaiting trial were invariably sent to Ahoada or Port Harcourt prisons to be kept in custody. This reality, to a great extent, caused the congestion of the Ahoada prisons. The occasion of that day provided a chance to call on the Federal Government to build a standard modern prison in the state to enhance the living conditions of prisoners and those awaiting trial.
At the time in question, there was the yawning absence of a Federal High Court in the state to cope with. Most cases involving the oil companies were pursued at the federal high courts. Aggrieved Bayelsans had to go all the way to the Federal High Court in Port Harcourt to seek redress.
The high cost of litigation was worrisome enough, to say nothing of the inconvenience suffered by litigants from Bayelsa State in that regard. The call, therefore, was for the Federal Government and the Chief Justice of the Federation to establish a Federal High Court in the Bayelsa State capital.
This had become imperative because there was a growing protest among the peoples of the oil producing states, particularly in the South-South zone, to stem the tide of economic frustration and despair by demanding absolute control over their resources. It was the place of the distinguished luminaries to fashion out legal tools in line with the people’s demands.
They were to pay attention to laws directly affecting the exploitation, management and disposal of resources, laws which had adversely affected the people to the point of being repressive. Among these were the Oil in Navigable Waters Act of 1968, the Petroleum Control Act of 1969, and the Land Use Act of 1978.
As instruments that were considered to have forced a wedge between the people and decent living, and as the legal signposts of unrelenting deprivation, the demand was for these laws to either be abrogated or reviewed on the principles of equity and justice, to enable the people enjoy the benefits of their God-given resources.
Alamieyeseigha could not but reiterate the commitment of government to the establishment and maintenance of a judiciary that would operate under a conducive working environment designed to encourage increased productivity in the interest of the ordinary man. In all, the expectation was that citizens could receive justice, and on time too. Prompt dispensation of justice would serve as a deterrent for miscreants to distance themselves from crime.
More than anything else, Alamieyeseigha believed that the judiciary should champion the crusade against corruption. Ayabowei was in a good position to spear-head this crusade. As far as he was concerned, justice could not possibly be on sale. He would rather enjoin judges and magistrates to beat a fresh path of legal jurisprudence that would enhance the newfound democracy by taking decisions that would promote the statutory operations of the judiciary in Bayelsa State.
As far as Alamieyeseigha was concerned, Ayabowei could undertake that crusade. He was only one man, but the example of one man was enough to cause a change. Thirty years after the creation of Bayelsa State, the big question is straight forward. How many servants of the law have followed the example of Honourable Clinton Jikeye Ayabowei?
