Tanko was honourable in the end

Tanko Muhammad, the 16th Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) and head of the Supreme Court, abruptly resigned his position  Sunday, June 26. He left it to President Muhammadu Buhari to explain why he did so. “Unfortunately, as no man is infallible, ill-health has cut short Chief Justice Tanko’s leadership of the Nigerian Judiciary at this time”, Buhari said during the swearing in of Tanko’s replacement, Justice Olukayode Ariwoola in an acting capacity.

Muhammad was not due to leave office until October 2023 when he would be 70, which is the retirement age for senior judicial officers. However, a combination of factors apparently forced his decision to leave ahead of time. Those included a leaked petition against the CJN by 14 justices of the Supreme Court, including the man named to replace him.

The petition, the first in the 58-year history of the apex Court, made Tanko’s continued stay in office untenable. We did make that point ckear in our editorial “A house divided against itself”, published June 24. We agreed with the ex CJN that the justices had behaved like a masquerade that danced naked at the market square. But who instigated that but him! 

We concluded that the conduct of the justices, though lamentable, was a no confidence vote that the CJN could not ignore. “Dancing naked at the market square. That is the point,” the editorial went on. “By doing this, they have rubbished the court’s integrity and respectability, sustained for 58 years. Majorly, however, the memo is a no confidence vote in the CJN, who came into office in 2019 in very controversial circumstances.”

 That Tanko left was honourable of him. Whether it was the pressure put on him by his colleagues or declining health that did it does not matter now. He quit when the signs on the wall told him he should go. That was a singular act of honour by a man sipped in controversy from start to finish. And Buhari was right to give him the honour of Grand Commander of the Niger (GCoN).