From Victor Osula, Abuja
The call for judicial reform as a way to improve and strengthened the rule of law and independence of the judicial arm of government in the country received a major boost last week. Retiring Justice Musa Dantijjo Mohammed in his speech delivered at the valedictory session held at the Supreme Court in Abuja on Friday, October 27, 2023 called for reform of the apex court as an institution.
According to Justice Mohammed who spent 43 years in the judiciary, 11 of it in the apex court, the statutory powers vested on the Chief Justice of the Nigeria are enormous and are being abused.
He said, “As presently structured, the CJN is Chairman of the National Judicial Council, NJC which oversees both the appointment and discipline of judges, he is equally chair of the Federal Justice Service Commission, FJSC, the National Judicial Institute, NJI, the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee that appoints Senior Advocates of Nigeria. In my considered opinion, the oversight functions of these bodies should not rest on an individual.”
He said that though Constitution provides for the inclusion of the next most senior justice of the apex court as Deputy Chairman of the NJC, the “CJN does not consult his deputy on anything.” In the exercise of these powers, the CJN, he said, failed to fill the required vacancies of justices who have either died or retired, leaving only 10 out of the Constitutionally required 21 justices. Particularly hit by this deliberate omission are the Southeast and North central, whose vacancies were created by the deaths of Justices from those geo-political zones.
Those who died and are yet to be replaced from the Southeast are Justice Chima Cletus Nweze who died on July 29, 2023. Before him, there was Justice Sylvester Nwali Ngwuta, who died on March 7, 2021. From the North central, is Justice Ejembi Eko who died on May 23, 2022 and the retiring Mohammed, himself. As it presently stands, only the Southwest Southsouth Northwest and Northeast are represented in the Supreme Court.
Even so, only the Southwest and Northeast have their full compliment of three justices, while the others have only two each. “To ensure justice and transparency in presidential appeals from the lower court, all geo-political zones are required to participate in the hearing. It is therefore dangerous for democracy and equity for two entire regions to be left out in the decisions that will affect the generality of Nigerians. This is not what the law envisages..”
Retiring Justice Mohammed also lamented the poor remuneration of Justice of the apex court despite the progressive increase in allocation over the years, from N70 billion in 2015 to N130 billion in eight years, the lack of merit in the appointment of judges and the avoidable corruption in the bench that has reduced the justices in the estimation of the public.
