THE DAY THE GAVELS BEGAN TO SING. Aare Amerijoye DOT.B

THE DAY THE GAVELS BEGAN TO SING.

Aare Amerijoye DOT.B

There are days in the life of a nation that break the spine of hope. Days that force a patriotic citizen to question whether we still have a judiciary or merely a ceremonial ornament wearing a robe. That day came for me when I saw the Deputy Director-General of The Narrative Force, Dr. Alex Adum Ter, a former Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice in Benue State, post this heartbreaking message on his Facebook page:

“This is how one man destroyed what was once a nation as Nigerian judges also join the fray to sing ‘On Your Mandate We Shall Stand’ at the Annual Nigerian Judges Conference. How sad.”

When a man who has administered justice at the highest levels raises an alarm, the nation must listen. If a former Attorney General laments that judges are now singing political choruses, then the judiciary is not merely wobbling; it is crumbling before our very eyes. The sanctuary of justice is being desecrated. The temple of law is being mocked. The guardians of the Constitution are now joining a political choir. How did we get here?

Nigeria’s position in the World Justice Project Rule of Law Index paints a bleak picture. Ranked 124 out of 142 countries, scoring a weak 0.38 out of 1.00 on judicial independence, our judiciary sits among the weakest on the continent. That humiliation, however, is merely the statistical expression of a deeper moral corrosion that Dr. Alex Adum Ter’s words captured so painfully: the Nigerian judiciary is no longer neutral. It has slipped from the dignified realm of law into the fog of political partisanship, and when the judiciary becomes political, the nation becomes defenceless.

The shock is not just that judges are singing; it is that they are singing a political song and doing so at their annual judges’ conference, a gathering that should reflect the highest degree of constitutional sobriety. A judge carries a sacred symbol, the gavel. It is not an instrument of entertainment; it is a weapon of justice. So when those entrusted with that weapon stand together to chant “On Your Mandate We Shall Stand,” the Constitution itself weeps.

Rule 1 of the Code of Conduct for Judicial Officers forbids any political involvement. Section 153 and the Third Schedule guarantee judicial independence. Yet the custodians of justice are choosing political anthems over constitutional fidelity. A judge who sings for a politician is not simply violating ethics , he is committing constitutional treason.

But what shattered me even more was not just Dr. Alex Adum Ter’s statement. It was the fact that I personally saw the video myself. I watched with my own eyes as Nigerian judges, during the All Nigerian Judges Conference held on Monday, November 17, 2025, at the National Judicial Institute (NJI) in Abuja, stood upright in open obeisance, observing, echoing, and singing “On Your Mandate We Shall Stand, Bola.” I watched them sway. I watched them respond. I watched them sing a political chorus in what should be the holiest sanctuary of justice.

And as I watched the video, I chuckled , not out of amusement, but out of disbelief, sorrow, and utter disappointment. It is sad indeed that the judges of the Federal Republic of Nigeria are now standing on Tinubu’s mandate. In that moment, as the video played, a painful realisation washed over me: Bola Ahmed Tinubu is actively destroying the democracy we all struggled to build, and he is desecrating the Constitution so brazenly that our heroes past, whose sacrifice and courage echo through our national anthem, would be weeping in the life beyond.

I once witnessed an incident that still haunts me. A widow whose shop had been demolished stood before a judge. Her tears carried the weight of starvation, despair, and desperation. Her evidence was solid. Her pain was raw. Her plea was simple: justice. But the judge glanced at a commissioner sitting proudly in the front row, and in that brief glance, a case that should have stood firmly on the foundation of truth crumbled into the dust of manipulation. The widow collapsed. The commissioner smirked. That day, I realised that justice in Nigeria does not bow to truth; it bows to power.

Today, what we see in election cases confirms this tragic reality. Between 2023 and 2024 alone, Nigerians filed over 6,000 election cases, the highest in Africa. A staggering 72 percent of governorship litigations ended in contradictory appellate decisions. More than 18 states had their election outcomes judicially overturned or modified. Nigeria now holds a global record not for electoral credibility, but for the sheer number of politicians produced not by ballots, but by court judgements. Our courts have become the new collation centres, the bench the new INEC, and the gavel the new ballot box.

Judicial decay is not just a moral collapse; it is an economic tragedy. Nigeria loses between 10 and 15 billion dollars annually in foreign investment because investors do not trust our courts. More than 70 percent of high-profile criminal cases collapse because justice is sold to the powerful. Over 70,000 inmates languish in prison awaiting trial. Ordinary commercial disputes take three to seven years to resolve, compared to six months in Rwanda. A nation’s prosperity cannot rise higher than the integrity of its justice system, and Nigeria’s justice system is sinking.

That is why Dr. Alex Adum Ter’s public outcry should be treated as a distress flare. This is not the voice of an uninformed commentator. It is the voice of a man who has supervised a state judiciary, defended constitutional order, confronted criminals, reviewed case files, and administered law with the authority of office. If a man of such experience announces that judges are now singing political anthems, it is not a complaint; it is a revelation of national danger. It means the judiciary has been captured. It means the bench has been compromised. It means the gavel has been bought. It means Nigeria is drifting into peril.

A nation collapses when the Executive becomes reckless, the Legislature becomes compromised, and the Judiciary becomes a choir of sycophants performing for the powerful. When the three arms of government converge into one voice , the voice of political loyalty ,democracy becomes an illusion, and citizens become spectators at their own oppression. We are approaching that cliff faster than we think.

Nigeria must reclaim the judiciary before the judiciary destroys what is left of Nigeria. Judges must return to the oath they swore. The courts must be rescued from sycophancy. The gavel must never echo the melody of political power. A judge must never sing any anthem except the Constitution. A court must never become a choir stand. A conference of judges must never become a political rally in disguise.

Because when the judiciary becomes a praise-singer, the republic becomes a funeral procession. And if we lose the courts, we lose the country.

Aare Amerijoye DOT.B

Director-General,

The Narrative Force