Judges, SANs Join Call for Review of CJN’s Powers

Alex Enumah in Abuja

President of the Industrial Court of Nigeria, Justice Benedict Kanyip, a former member of the National Judicial Council (NJC), Dr. Muiz Banire, SAN, Mrs. Funke Adekoya, Dr. Oliver Stolpe of the UNODC; Professor Ameze Guobadia of the Faculty of Law, University of Lagos amongst others have joined the call seeking the reduction of the powers of the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN).

Their position was contained in recommendations to the federal government at the just concluded National Summit on Justice.
Kanyip, Banire, Stolpe and Guobadia were all members of a panel on “Assessing the Performance of the National Judicial Council in Discharging its Responsibility for Judicial Appointments into the Superior Courts of Record”.

Presenting a communique from the summit to journalists in Abuja, yesterday, Chairman of the Joint Planning Committee, Dr. Babatunde Ajibade, disclosed that amongst the three areas of priority was the process of appointment of judicial officers.

According to Ajibade, “if we don’t get the judicial appointments process right, it is difficult to build anything significant on top of that.”
He identified funding and eradication of delays in the administration of justice as the other two priority areas.
Speaking further, Ajibade disclosed that the panelists urged for a significant review of the role of the NJC in discharging his responsibility for judicial appointments into the Superior Court of record.

The communique said the panelists expressed concern about the fact that the CJN who is the chairman of the NJC is also the chairman of the Federal Judicial Service Commission, which is the body that initially reviews proposals or lists of candidates by appointment into judicial office.

It is the position of the panelists in the communique that such a situation suggest that the CJN “was then recommending candidates to himself being chairman of both bodies, and being the person who appoints a significant number of the members of both bodies other than those who are statutory members.”
Another panel which dealt with the philosophical underpinnings of the judicial appointments, process, structural and constitutional dimensions and proposals for constitutional and legislative reform, stressed the fact that focus should be on increased transparency in the appointment process.

In addition, the panel also called for focus on meritocracy and on meaningful performance evaluations of those who seek judicial office. Recommendations were made for the consideration of the model that is currently being used in Kenya.
In addition, they made a case for the codification of the judicial appointments process, such that the discretion that is currently witnessed in the appointments process is reduced to the barest minimum.

Those in this panel include; Professor Dakas C.J. Dakas, SAN, a former Attorney General of Plateau State, Dr. Olisa Agbakoba, former President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Professor Yusuf Ali SAN, Mr. Joseph Otteh, who is the convener of the Access for Justice and Dr. Jan van zyl Smith, who is the Acting Director of the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law in London, England, who came down from London to participate in this session.