Nepotism as Threat to Judiciary’s Independence

Wale Igbintade writes that the influence of close family members and associates in top judicial and political offices on the appointment of judges is increasingly eroding the independence of the Nigerian judiciary.

The Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, last week swore in 12 judges into the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory. Among the judges was his daughter-in-law, Ariwoola Oluwakemi Victoria.

On May 17, 2024, the National Judicial Council (NJC) recommended a total of 86 judicial officers for appointment into federal and state high courts across the country.  The recommendations were reportedly made by the council’s Interview Committee on Appointment of Judicial Officers of all Superior Courts of Record in Nigeria, during the NJC’s 105th plenary meeting held between May 15 and 16, 2024.

THISDAY gathered that also among those that were sworn in by the CJN were Ibrahim Tanko Munirat (Bauchi State), who is the daughter of the former CJN, Justice Tanko Muhammed; Buetnaan Mandy Bassi (Plateau State), who is also the daughter of President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Monica Dongban-Mensem; Hauwa Lawal Gummi (Jigawa State), also the daughter of the former Chief Judge of the FCT High Court, Justice Lawal Hassan Gummi; Maryam Iye Yusuf (Kogi State), also the daughter to the current Chief Judge of the FCT High Court; and Lesley Nkesi Belema Wike (Rivers State), the sister-in-law to the Minister of the FCT, Mr. Nyesom Wike.

Wike’s wife, Justice Eberechi Suzzette Wike, was also sworn in as justice of the Court of Appeal at the same occasion.

This is not the first time Justice Ariwoola has been accused of nepotism. In July 2023, he presided over a meeting of the NJC, which appointed his son as a judge of the Federal High Court and on October 4, he presided over his swearing-in.

Again, in June 2023, the NJC convened to approve the elevation of the President of the Court of Appeal’s son-in-law to the Appeal Court bench. This individual had previously been appointed as a judge of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN), a mere six years earlier in 2017.

In January 2021, Simon Lalong, the then Governor of Plateau State, swore in the wife of his son-in-law, who is also the daughter of the President of the Court of Appeal, as a judge of the High Court of Plateau State.

The following year, the wife of the President of the NICN was similarly appointed a judge of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory. Her brother, like her husband, was also a member of the NJC.

In 2022, the governor of Bayelsa State appointed his wife as a judge of the state high court.

There is other evidence of how the senior members of the judiciary and political class hand out judicial offices to their spouses and children like end-of-year hampers across the country, creating the impression of a grand plot to hijack the judiciary. 

The judiciary is sometimes referred to as the last hope of the common man. For the judiciary to be effective, it has to be independent and impartial.

Its independence is also critical to maintaining the impartiality and integrity of electoral commissions. When courts are co-opted, however, not only would they deliver biased and incongruous judgments, they can rubber-stamp illegalities, entrench impunity, and weaken other oversight institutions.

It is often believed that captured courts are a major instrument in the hands of regimes intent on subverting the checks and balances inherent in a democracy.

The effect of this could be seen in Plateau State where the alleged favour done to the Court of Appeal President, Justice Monica Dongban-Mensem by former Governor Lalong in her appointment and the appointment of her daughter as a judge of the High Court of Plateau State was alleged to have led to the bias that led to the nullification of the elections of the federal and state lawmakers on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) by the state Election Petitions Tribunal and Court of Appeal panel. 

An investigation by a human rights activist and former Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Prof Chidi Odinkalu revealed that among Nigeria’s first eight indigenous CJNs, only the first, Justice Adetokunbo Ademola, had a child, Philip Adenekan Ademola, who became a judge.

However, many of their successors since Mohammed Uwais’s retirement in June 2006 have used their positions as heads of the NJC to promote their own children to high judicial offices, disregarding potential conflicts of interest.

For instance, a former CJN appointed two sons to the high court bench and another two to positions in the registry of different courts in the country.

The only requirement for judicial appointment in Nigeria as spelt out in Sections 250 and 271 of the 1999 Constitution is a minimum of 10 years of enrolment as a lawyer in Nigeria. There are no prescribed skill, character, or integrity thresholds.

In 2020, the NJC was alleged to have advertised 15 vacancies for the FCT High Court but nominated 34 persons for appointment, with all of the non-advertised nominations going to the children or relatives of judicial insiders.

Rule 8.3 of the Judicial Code of Conduct established by the NJC contains this explicit prohibition: “A judge who takes advantage of the judicial office for personal gain or for gain by his or her relative or relation abuses power.”

 As a rule under the Basic Principles, “any method of judicial selection shall safeguard against judicial appointments for improper motives.”

In 2022, human rights lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), revealed that “two years ago, a candidate who scored zero in the NJC interview was made a judge.”

A Professor of Law, Itsejuwa Sagay, (SAN), who chaired the Presidential Advisory Committee against Corruption (PACAC) in the administration of Muhammadu Buhari, once faulted the rate with which “sons and daughters of retired and serving judges and justices are being nominated for appointment into sensitive judicial positions at the expense of more qualified candidates without privileged support and backing.”

The point about judicial capture is that it does not pretend to put the institutions of the judiciary to any transcendental or societal goals.

Leading judicial figures and political leaders are now insisting on making their spouses, mistresses, children or family members judges.

Currently, it is common to see that state governors ensuring that judges serving in their territories receive choice properties and other benefits, which they often do not declare as part of their clandestine plot to capture the judiciary.

This is why Odinkalu recently said: “The alacrity with which parents and paramours in high judicial or political office in Nigeria suddenly discover these days that the hidden genius of their scions or sleep mates deserve elevation to the highest levels of judicial office tasks every calculus of probability beyond the realm of plausibility. The only explanation for this pattern is that judicial office is hawked as a transactional token or filial favour, or for genital propinquity.”