“Nigerians need to contextualise the warning against the background of an existing judgement given in favour of ‘someone’ already while juxtaposing it with the bishops’ rejection of that judgement. Had there been no judgement at all in favour of anyone had been good, but there is a subsisting judgement which the bishops are faulting.
“It simply means the bishops spoke with a mindset. They have a favourite. They have a candidate and what they mean is this, ‘Oh ye judges of the Supreme Court, the tribunal has ruled in favour of ‘someone’ but we have rejected it because the judges ‘adopted a dismissive approach’. We therefore warn you ahead. Your ruling will be rejected by us if it also fails to favour our candidate.’
“We are pleasantly surprised that the bishops described a judgement document of more than 798 pages as ‘dismissive approach’. The voluminous document that got many of the lawyers sleeping in court as it took fourteen hours to deliver. The learned judges were meticulous in their delivery of the judgement. To call that ‘dismissive’ is to be guilty of premeditated trivialization.
“Yet the bishops engaged in double-speaking when they described the delivery of the judgement as ‘marathon’. The gap between ‘dismissive approach’ and ‘marathon’ delivery is like the distance between heaven and earth. Such inconsistency is unexpected of men of the bishops’ caliber whom many look upon as models and leaders.
“We expected the catholic bishops to seize the opportunity of the second plenary of the seminary to lecture the authors of the plethora of prophecies about the outcome of the election, and even that of the tribunal judgment, all of which turned out to be false. They became a monumental embarrassment.
“As leaders the bishops also failed to advise the opposition against cyber bullying, threats, insults, abuses and blackmail. That is not how we should continue in Nigeria.
“By issuing that warning, the bishops became impediments to a free judiciary. It is not only a tyrannical government that can be a threat to the independence of the judiciary and its freedom, a belligerent citizenry as well as any arrogant institution or group, whether social or spiritual, that proves unwilling to submit to the rule of law can equally constitute cogs in the wheel of freedom of the judiciary.
“The judiciary must be free from fear of physical, psychological and spiritual attacks to be able to deliver judgement without fear or favour whereas the bishops’ warning was calculated to create fear in the judges of the Supreme Court even before the case files reach their tables. It is calculated to coerce the judges to make judicial pronouncements that will favour the bishops’ favourite candidate.
“It is unclerical to bully judges and, by the way, only those whose cases are watery and without merit try to intimidate judges. Only men of little faith do. This is what the bishops are expected to have in abundance (faith) by virtue of their calling. Nigerians are tremendously disappointed. It is demeaning. The bishops and all Nigerians must have tons of faith in the judges that the Nigerian judiciary may remain credible.
“MURIC charges judges of the Supreme Court to ignore the veiled threat from the Catholic bishops and to confront the case brought before them with truth, strength, vigour and faith.
“To all judges we say, ‘Stand firm like the Rock of Gibraltar and fear not. Your chamber is hallowed and your profession most noble. Men of conscience will stand by you but, above all, Almighty God will vindicate you’.”