The judges’ conference for the 2015/2016 legal year held in Lafia, Nasarawa State, was declared open by the state governor who dwelt on some salient issues. The event laid bare the statistics of cases filed at federal high courts across the country, Senior Correspondent, ONYEWUCHI OJINNAKA, writes.
The number of cases filed before the 36 divisions of the Federal High Court from October 2014 to September 2015 was 144,947. The total number of cases disposed of within the same period was 143,643 while 57,788 cases were carried forward.
Similarly, from October 2013 to September 2014, 19,458 cases were brought forward while 4,012 cases were filed, totalling 23,470.
This statistics was given by the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court of Nigeria Honourable Justice Ibrahim Ndahi Auta in his address at the opening of the 31st annual Federal High Court Judges’ conference held in Lafia, Nasarawa State.
The conference was formally declared open by Governor Umaru Tanko Al-Makura, on Tuesday, October 13, 2015 on the invitation of Justice Auta.
While appraising the performance of judges in previous legal year, Justice Auta expressed delight that from the given statistics, judges of the court from all the divisions did their best in the cases before them, especially within the 2014/2015 legal year.
He congratulated the judges for their wonderful performance, expressing hope that when the new judges resume duties soon, “our output both in quality and quantity will be even better than it is today”. He further expressed his wish for a situation where no case would last for more than one year on the cause list in the Federal High Court throughout the country.
Declaring open the conference, the governor spoke on issues bordering the judiciary, national interest and commended the federal jurists for considering Nasarawa as host for 2015/2016 conference. He noted that the conference was taking place at the time the country was in dire need of three arms of government to move forward.
Stressing the importance of the judiciary in the development and sustenance of democracy, Al-Makura pointed out that the court should be seen to be a sacred temple of justice to which the people look up for justice.
Charging the judges to ensure that the rule of law is the hope of the common man, he used the forum to state that his administration has set up a committee to compile and review the laws of Nasarawa State which, after the review, will serve as working tool for lawyers and other stakeholders in the judicial sector.
The governor said: “No agreeable progress in the country would be made without total commitment to law and order, in addition to good governance.”
Menace of social media
He drew the attention of the judges to the menace and excesses of the social media, lamenting that they are threatening the liberty and rights of individuals and the society at large.
“Social media engages in cheap blackmail. As honourable members of the bench, you can look seriously into the perpetration of hatred, name-calling, dissemination of false information and falsehood reporting by social media, with a view to ensuring that the negative practice by these social media is brought under check.”
Appointment of judges
Addressing the participants on appointment of new judges, the governor made reference to Deuteronomy 16:18 on the issue of judges, saying that all laws are made by God Almighty. He opined that in appointment of judges, state of origin and the community from which a candidate/lawyer is nominated for appointment as a judge should play a nominal role. According to him, the community should be involved in assessing and fortifying the credibility of such a person. He suggested that the involvement of the community should be one of the criteria so that every judge should have at the back of their mind that their credibility is at stake and they must resist every form of corruption or anything that will jeopardise or discredit their reputation while serving as a judge.
Corruption
Speaking on corruption, which has eaten deep into the fabric of the Nigerian society, Al-Makura said: “Corruption has stagnated development in this country,” adding that fighting corruption should have the support and engagement of the court.
He noted that President Muhammadu Buhari is steadfast and determined in his effort to curb corruption in this country or at least reduce it to the barest minimum.
He charged the jurists to join in the war against corruption by discharging their statutory duties timely without fear or favour against those charged before the court for corrupt offences.
Financial autonomy/rule of law
The governor stated in his address that Nasarawa is the first state to grant financial autonomy to the state judiciary in line with Sections 81(3), 121(3) and 162(9) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended.
His words: “Our passion for the rule of law has been metamorphosed and gone further to ensure that fundamental rights are guaranteed at all times.”
Speaking on persons with disability, the governor called for the enactment of disability law for the sake of disabled persons in our society. He made a passionate appeal for the enactment of the law and thanked the chief judge who had conceded to the request for additional federal high court judges.
Justice Auta, had earlier in his address welcomed the governor and members of the state executive, reeling out the history of the Federal High Court which was established in 1973 by virtue of Decree No 13 of 1973 as the Federal Revenue Court; essentially to hear, expeditiously, causes and matters relating to the revenue of the federal government, particularly taxation of companies, Customs and Excise Duties, banking, foreign exchange (FOREX) and currency as well as fiscal measures. However, through several amendments, the court was enlarged to cover several critical areas as presently contained in Section 251 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended).
Appraisal
Justice Auta disclosed that the import of the conference was to appraise the activities of the previous year, with a view to finding solutions to identified problems and move the court forward.
“In the process of finding solutions to identified problems, honourable judges freely correct and apportion blame to their errant brother judges before they finally resolve to improve on their performance in the previous year,” he said.