JUDICIARY HOLDING THE EXECUTIVE IN CHECK: THE CASE OF ARTHUR v NATIONAL COMMUNICATION AUTHORITY, ATTORNEY GENERAL & OTHERS
INTRODUCTION The 1992 Constitution , envisages three arms of government, the Executive, Legislature and Judiciary with their respective powers, separated, dispersed and laid down in Articles 58, 93 (2) and 125 respectively. These arms of government are however expected to work in harmony in the governance of the State, counter-balancing their powers without necessarily interfering in each other’s role. A form of checks and balances so no one arm of government oversteps its limits. The challenges with this arrangement is often where the Executive is trying to overstep its boundaries and the will of the other arms to stop it. There have been situations that the opportunity has arisen where the Judiciary was in a position to limit the powers of the Executive but did not have the will to do so as in the famous and celebrated case of Re Akoto and 7 others case. It is however heart-warming that we still have Judges who are bold spirits to interpret the law without fear or favour ...