SOCIAL DYNAMICS, LEADERSHIP AND CRIME

VIEWING THE PURGE OF THE JUDICIARY FROM THEKALEIDOSCOPE OF PATRIOTISM AND WITCH-HUNT

Abstract

The age long judicial independence and reverence appears to be on trial in contemporary Nigerian polity.  Indeed, there are massive purges going on in the judiciary in order to sanitize and bring errant judicial officers to justice.  However, the exercise has been turned into a political affair which seems now to bother on leadership ego and witch hunt. This paper puts forward the view that the Executive arm of the Federal government of Nigeria is right to assume leadership and use the instrument of the law in fighting against the crime of corruption in the judiciary as long as the said government are themselves conducting the exercise within the due process of the laws that govern Nigeria’s affairs; otherwise the country will be inadvertently laying down a social dynamics that will certainly erode any modicum of protection which democracy offers the society.