All what I want to analyze involve action, but every action that one performs is as a result of a decision. Therefore decisions lie at the heart of all administration since virtually all administration is about decisions. Disraeli once remarked that action may not always bring happiness but there is no happiness without action. On a more elevated scale, a distinguished American clergyman, Robert Mac Arthur, said that activity is God’s medicine and that the highest genius is willingness and ability to do hard work.
You have been largely connected with experience in the performance of official duties; harrowing experience. You are charged with the responsibility of directing the affairs of the entire judiciary, you should work hard to the utmost of your ability making ‘Action’ your motto. Looking at Frank Okon’s case from a wider plane, I have always considered it an unreasonable question to ask if judiciary would miscarry and do the same thing again, as they had done on previous occasions. The reason is that no two moments in a time is identical, the various circumstances which constituted the parameter on which action was taken on a previous occasion can never be the same again. I so much rely on a maxim that says whatever a person do at any given time, he should do it with all the thoroughness and conviction he could put into it, after that history and posterity to find a meaning to it.
Let me quote Grellet who said, “I expect to pass through the world but once; any good thing, therefore that I can do, or any kindness I can show to any fellow human being, let me do it now, let me not defer nor neglect it. For I shall not pass this way again”. The process of administration is a universal one; it is concerned with taking decisions and getting things done.
The lesson for anyone aspiring to leadership is that no sensible leader should hope for or expect perpetual praises from the people, he should expect to be maligned, pilloried and to be misunderstood. A leader should learn to develop frustration tolerance which he cannot survive either mentally or physically. To worry about fame and praise is to be unworthy of a leadership role. The old saying that uneasy lies the head that wears the crown will remain true so long as human beings inhabit this planet and form themselves into organized societies.
My humble advice to you is to be grateful to God that it has fallen to your lot to lead the administration of the judiciary at this momentous period in the history of Nigeria.
You should endeavour to be guided by the dictates of your conscience and to act at all times with complete honesty and singleness of purpose. Rejoice and realize that you spent every ounce of energy and talent which God has given you in the service of your people, seek and maintain self-respect, win a reputation for courage and integrity, don’t follow blindly in your official actions or the dictates of people. Let the account of your stewardship as C.J.N becomes a matter of record for everyone to see, and then leave history and posterity to judge.
Always make it a cardinal principle that you should rather step down from public office and disappear into oblivion with a clear conscience than ride in the chariot of victory as a stool pigeon, slave, servant, or the vassal of any man, whether he be the owner and manager of entire world or ruler and dictator of all political forces or put it this way, that you would rather lie in a silent grave, remembered by both friends and enemies as one who remained true to your conviction and who never faltered in what you believe to be your duty, than to ride on the temporary crest of the waves of popularity and in the end lack the confidence of friends and foe.
The only essential precaution to you is to operate smoothly and free from accusation of bias, go fully into the case instituted by Engineer Frank Okon, ascertain the truth and decide on how best to do justice in the case. Since this case will be recorded in yearly Nigerian law report that will rotate across the world, don’t disgrace yourself as the C.J.N.
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