Chief Bolaji Ayorinde read Law at University College Buckland, London, called to the Nigerian Bar in 1986 and was elevated to the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) in 2005. The Chairman of Legal Aid Council (LAC) was Pro-Chancellor and Chairman, Governing Council of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Ogbomoso, Oyo State, between 2007 and 2011. In this interview with Senior Correspondent, ONYEWUCHI OJINNAKA, he speaks on the assessment of judges by NJC, appointment of lawyers to the Bench, among other issues.
In the recent quarterly assessment of judges, the Chief Justice of Nigeria and Chairman of National Judicial Council (NJC) summoned three judges because of under-performance. As a senior member of the Bar, what is the import or necessity of the assessment?
Of course, it is necessary. It starts with the appointment process. After the appointment, there should be monitoring because you are just a judge for the sake of being a judge; you must be productive. So, it is good that the NJC has the means of monitoring the production rate of judges, and if the production rate is very low, you ask the person to step aside. It is not a matter of being corrupt; it is a matter of not being competent. If the production rate is low, you call in the judge and find out why it is low. If it is for health reasons, then obviously, such a person may not be able to carry on the functions of a judge, and the system will find a way of looking after such a person, especially when you consider his past years of service. But, if you have a case where the judge is unable to cope, then it is like having made a wrong appointment. The sector is too critical to leave such a person on the job. I think one should support the CJN on that point.
Are you implying that sometimes competent lawyers are not appointed to the Bench?
Well, we have some very excellent judges in Nigeria. But at the same time because the system is not foolproof, because the system has been abused in the past, certain persons who ordinarily should not be doing that job have found their ways into those seats. Like I said, we still have excellent judges who turn out excellent judgments.
It is easy to criticise lawyers and say they file all manners of applications. The lawyer will file applications; it is left to the judge who is very competent to immediately see through the applications and say you have filed four applications today, I have looked at all of them, I will hear everything together. He takes it and you will see that if a judge is fully in charge of his/her court, he/she can deliver a bench ruling. The application that has merit will be given such merit; the ones that deserve to be thrown into the dust bin will go there immediately. There is also the regime of cost. You make the cost very punitive, so that it will dissuade lawyers from filing such applications. But, we do have excellent judges, it is the system that needs revamping constantly, so that we do not have too many of the bad ones overshadowing the good work that the good ones are doing.
Would you prefer majority of appointments to the Bench to come from the Ministry of Justice or private practice?
I think it should be mixed. Either from the public service like the Ministry of Justice or other departments of government or from the private practice or even from the academia. You can appoint judges from the universities; so, it should be balanced. What is important is that the criteria is met, the person to be appointed must have integrity, sound knowledge of the law and really desires to take the job. That is what is important.
Talking about competence, do you agree that those in active practice are more informed in terms of knowledge of law than lawyers from the Ministry of Justice?
You will be surprised that in the days gone by, majority of our judges came from the civil service and they did very well. So, a lot of them that we celebrate their judgments and contributions to jurisprudence today were from the Ministry of Justice in those days. It is a matter of getting the right people because I know that in the 1960s and 70s, it is not automatic that if you are in the Ministry of Justice and you attained a certain position you must be a judge. If you are not a fit and proper person, either in learning and or character to attain the position of judgeship, you will be passed by.
In England, it is a common practice to appoint Queen’s Counsel (QC) to the Bench unlike in Nigeria where SANs, equivalent of QCs, are not appointed. What are the reasons for not adopting the practice?
It is not compulsory, but most QCs aspire to judgeship. In England, by the time you take up appointment to the Bench, you find out that a lot of QCs attain the rank between the ages of 40 and 45; so before they are 50, they would have practised sufficiently at the highest level and they are willing to go to the Bench. The Bench will offer them a full career of another 25 years. They are sure of a decent pension and in most cases, a knighthood from the Queen. So, it is where they go for security after being in private practice. But, there are still very high numbers of QCs that stay in private practice and do not go to the Bench. However, it is a natural flow.
Why is it that in Nigeria, most SANs do not want to go to the Bench?
I think it will change and the reason that will change is the increase in numbers of SANs being appointed. In England, they could appoint sometimes 80 or 60 QCs every year. Now, you cannot have 60 or 50 QCs running up and down the whole country every year. So, the Bench is a natural place for them to flow into. Because, we still have restrictive appointment into the rank of SAN, the Bench is not a natural place to flow to. But if we increase the number, you will find out that SANs will begin to gravitate towards the Bench, and the suggestion has been on for quite sometime to encourage silks to take up judicial appointments.
The talk has always been restricted to getting them into the Supreme Court. I have always advocated that it should be open; it does not really have to be the Supreme Court. If you are interested in the Bench, you could still find your way to the Court of Appeal, the High Court or even the National Industrial Court because these are places where most of the judicial decisions are going on day in, day out. These are places they really need your skills. A seasoned SAN sitting as a High Court judge has nothing new that will surprise him or her. So, he takes the case and makes life easier for the appellate court or the apex court when the matter gets there.