Onnoghen Gets 2018 Michael Hill Prize for Criminal Law Reform

Alex Enumah in Abuja

The Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen, has been conferred with the 2018 Michael Hill Prize for his reform agenda, which has positively changed the way the Nigerian judiciary works.

The award was presented to the CJN in Montreal, Canada, by the International Society for the Reform of Criminal Law (ISRCL), an international non-governmental association of judges, legislators, lawyers, academics, and police and corrections professionals, at its 31st conference in Canada with the theme: ‘The Scourge of Trafficking in the 21st Century.’

While presenting the award, ISRCL President, Major General Greg Melick, described Justice Onnoghen as “a judges’ judge on account of his over 30 years devotion to the pursuit of justice,” and a “leading light of the Nigerian Judiciary.”

In a statement by Mr. Awassam Bassey, Senior Special Assistant to the CJN, the ISRCL President was quoted as saying, “Mr. Justice Onnoghen has been a leading light on the Nigerian Supreme Court, and the Nigerian judiciary as a whole, central to the protection and stabilisation of democracy, checking the near-sighted antics of do-or-die politicians. Cases like Amaechi vs INEC are cited as examples of the outside-the-box jurisprudence that saved Nigeria’s democracy.”

The president noted that the CJN, since his appointment as Chief Justice of Nigeria in November 2016, has “brought a lot of zeal and originality to judicial administration in the country”, adding that through a series of National Judicial Council (NJC) committees, Onnoghen launched a Judicial Reform Programme that is already showing results.
According to the ISRCL President, “One result that is exciting the populace is the apparent end to the stalemate in the prosecution of high-profile corruption cases. Cases are now reaching conclusion, evinced by two recent high-profile convictions of two former state governors.”

Melick said the ISRCL had chosen Justice Onnoghen for the Michael Hill Medal Award because he is “an embodiment of the ideals and goals of the International Society for the Reform of Criminal Law.”

Accepting the award, Onnoghen called on criminal prosecutors in particular, and lawyers in general, to imbibe the virtues of the late Michael Hill, whom he described as “a relentless prosecutor, “a dogged defence counsel,” who “had a reputation for holding himself to the highest standards of professional conduct, dedication to duty and the pursuit of justice.”