After about nine weeks of vacation, full activities resumed at all the Nigerian courts for the 2015/2016 new legal year. Senior Correspondent, ONYEWUCHI OJINNAKA, looks at how the judiciary has fared and the expectations of stakeholders in the new year.
With the commencement of 2015/2016 legal year by September ending, which coincides with Nigeria’s 55 Independence anniversary, it becomes imperative to review performance of the judiciary and also look at what lies ahead in the new legal and political year. One of the issues that has dogged the wig is corruption.
Before now
To mark Nigeria’s 53 years of Independence, National Association of Judicial Correspondents (NAJUC), Ikeja Lagos, organised a lecture titled ‘The Woes of the Bar in the Face of Corruption on the Bench’.
In a paper titled ‘The Many Faces of Judicial Rot’, chairman of Legal Aid Council of Nigeria, Bolaji Ayorinde (SAN), said: “The judiciary is commonly and rightly referred to as the last hope of the common man. This presupposes that it guarantees equal access to justice and equity, and equally ensures that the rights of citizens are adequately accommodated and judgments handed down in accordance with the dictates of the law and facts presented to the court.
“The judiciary can only act as the last hope of the common man when it is independent, well-funded, courageous, unbiased and proactive. Unfortunately, these salient attributes have been eroded in the Nigerian context as independent observers such as the Transparency International’s Global Corruption Barometer 2010/2011 which ranked Nigerian judiciary among the most corrupt institutions in the country.”
Dissatisfied and worried with the rate of decadence in the nation’s judicial system, Ayorinde further said: “The system has in fact suffered from severe corrupting influence which has been official and private. Official corruption is institutionalised by the government where it deliberately underfunds the judicial system and controls the privileges enjoyed by judicial officers.”
He described judicial corruption as inappropriate financial or material gain and non-material gain aimed at influencing the impartiality of the judicial process by any actor within or outside the court system.
According to him, judicial corruption poisons the judicial process by compromising its defining attribute which is fairness, equal and fearless resolution of disputes.
Judicial corruption, he added, can be perpetrated in many forms such as bribery to pervert justice, appointment of judges without due process, elevation of lawyers to the status of senior advocates without following the laid down rules and principles, delivering pre-determined judgments and rulings, offering of bribe to judicial workers to tamper with case files, inducing the bailiffs to carry out unwarranted court orders or execution of judgments and inducing judicial workers to obtain favour from them.
Former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Mariam Aloma Mukhtar, while swearing in one of the judges in Abuja, charged him to work very hard to redeem the battered image of the judiciary and ensure that public confidence is restored in the sector.
“Let me also remind you that your appointment is coming at a time the Nigerian judiciary, particularly the High Court of the FCT, is on the heels of various challenges. I am of the firm belief that these challenges are not insurmountable. I therefore charge you to make all efforts and leave no stone unturned to reposition the court and ensure that the confidence of the public is restored in the system. The rare quality of leadership by example must constantly be your watchword and you must strive to ensure that you carry out your functions without any dint of taint on your name,” she charged.
The temple of justice in Nigeria is being gradually destroyed by corruption to the concern of many. Many judges have been indicted for professional misconduct, controversial judgments and rulings, lobbying for appointment as members of election petition tribunals, exchanging correspondences with lead counsel and some other corrupt practices.
Root of rot
Aliyu Umar, a Kaduna-based lawyer, while commenting on the Nigerian judiciary, said lots of problems are facing the sector. “The problem has to do with the whole system. It is the way Nigeria is and because the sector is in Nigeria, the problem facing the country as a whole is what is affecting the judicial system.
“For example, before one becomes a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), one must have gone to the Supreme Court at least twice. That is not the problem; the problem is that one needs to make some move by seeing some people before you present your case at the court. This alone explains that our judicial system is faulty,” he expressed.
Another cause of rot in the system is underfunding. In the past years and even till date, the judiciary is starved of fund and made to go cap-in-hand for proper and adequate funding and, in the process, the quality and impartiality of justice delivery is sometimes perceived as compromised in favour of the government at both federal and state levels.
It is believed that since politicians are in possession of executive powers and are directly involved in the appointment of judges, provision of courts, court materials, chambers, residences and other necessary things, the executive would indirectly influence the work of the judicial officers. Underfunding of the judiciary 55 years after Independence is quite appalling and, no doubt, one of the consequences of decay in the judiciary. It undermines the independence of the judiciary and makes nonsense of the globally-accepted conventions like the United Nations (UN) principles of the independence of the judiciary. Most part of last year, the Judicial Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) went on strike to demand financial autonomy of the judiciary which was granted by a court ruling. But various state governments refused to obey and implement the court decision.
Effects/expectations
Litigants expect the judiciary to handle cases expeditiously and spare them the agony of coming to court often for a case that would have ordinarily not taken more than six months. Due to time and financial constraints, some litigants abandon their cases midway. They became frustrated and disappointed and eventually the cases are struck out for lack of diligent prosecution.
Commenting on delays in justice delivery, expectations in the new legal year and way forward in respect of quick dispensation of cases pending in courts, former Lagos State Commissioner for Justice, Ade Ipaye, described delay in the dispensation of justice as a big problem. But the judiciary in Lagos has continued to gradually decrease the problem by increasing the pace of adjudication.
“The Lagos State government is committed to providing all that is necessary in terms of support, equipment, training opportunities to enable our judges and magistrates to be at their best always,” he explained.
He disclosed that verbatim court reporters have been deployed in a few of the courts, adding that the verbatim reporters would enable the judges and magistrates move more speedily in dispensing cases.
Stakeholders in judicial sector also expressed high expectations in the system.
Lagos lawyer, Adeshina Ogunlana, said: “I expect a robust year in terms of quality performance on the part of the judges and the lawyers.” He said he would normally want the administration of justice not only to be speedy but to be just, adding that it also depends not only on the judges but on the lawyers as well.
Professor Taiwo Osipitan (SAN), while expressing his expectation on quick justice delivery in the new legal and political year, which commences from October 1, said it will be a very successful year for the bench, the bar and the litigants. He is hopeful that the new legal year will be very good, while advocating a conference of stakeholders in the judicial system to resolve issues affecting quick justice delivery and administration.
“The lawyers contribute towards delay, litigants themselves contribute towards delay; so it is a problem that everybody will have to come out, identify and resolve collectively to move the court forward because unless we do that very soon, people will lose confidence in the judiciary,” he posited.
He cautioned that if people lose confidence in the judicial system, they would seek alternatives to settle their differences. This, he stressed, may be an invitation to anarchy and chaos.
Way forward
To eradicate the decay in the judiciary, some measures must be put in place to retain public confidence. The code of conduct for the Bench should be made public, and the media should play the role of ombudsman to the conduct of judges. There must be political will to have a fully independent judiciary. The executive arm should not be seen as providing for the welfare of judges as a favour being extended to the judiciary.
There must be complete independence of the judiciary. In appointment of judges, the body in charge should take extra measures before an appointment is made. Judges should build their integrity and public trust, and there should be judicial accountability and discipline.
Amendment of obsolete criminal laws, reactivation of justice commission and passage of some pending justice sector bills in the National Assembly, implementation of the rule of law and the administration of criminal justice Act is non-negotiable. The solution to underfunding of the judiciary, which is the basis of official corruption and decay in the judiciary, is already provided by law and should be adhered to strictly.
While swearing in the new Senior Advocates of Nigeria in a special session of the Supreme Court to commence 2015/2016 new legal year, the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) Justice Mahmud Mohammed, apparently aware of the rot in the judiciary, charged the new silk lawyers to identify corrupt judges for proper disciplinary action by the National Judicial Council (NJC).
Until the stated measures are taken and implemented, problems bedevilling the judiciary may continue ad infinitum.