REFORMING THE JUSTICE SECTOR
Among other measures, Judges must be appointed on merit
From court clerks who make case files to appear and disappear, to lawyers who facilitate unwholesome practices and Judges who are not above board in their conduct, the administration of justice system in Nigeria needs a serious reform. And in what can be described as a stinging indictment, Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, said the courts are no longer for the ordinary people. “Gone were those days when the judiciary was regarded as the last hope of the common man. It is the big people now who patronise the judiciary, not even the common man,” Fagbemi said earlier in the year in the presence of then Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), and President of the Court of Appeal. “Forgive me, I don’t mean to be rude. So, the judiciary is no longer the last hope of the common man alone, it is also, or majorly now, the last hope of the big shots.”
No society can reasonably develop with such a system where there are different standards for the poor and the rich in the application of the rule of law. But whatever might have been his motivation, Fagbemi has not said anything different from what judicial officers themselves know to be the situation. The question now is: Who will introduce these needed reforms so that the courts can be the last hope of the common man? From delays in the administration of justice, which are most often deliberate acts, to the culture of tardiness and corruption which robs the institution of its impartiality, fairness and independence, the problems are legion. For instance, restoring credibility becomes difficult when courts of coordinate jurisdictions give conflicting judgments and Judges commercialise injunctions to create confusion in the polity. Besides, powerful individuals and corporate bodies are now using the courts to deal with real and perceived opponents in a manner that bodes ill for the rule of law.
To change the narrative, as we have highlighted on several occasions in the past, the process of appointing judges must be reviewed among other reform measures. For more than two decades, especially since the current democratic dispensation in 1999, critical stakeholders in the justice sector have been calling for transparency and merit in the appointment of judges. No one would expect a bench that is populated by cronies, relations, and misfits to serve the interest of the people. That has given rise to all kinds of unwholesome judicial pronouncements.
At his Senate confirmation hearing as CJN in September, Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun highlighted some of the challenges in the judicial sector while pledging reforms. “We have a committee of the National Judicial Council (NJC) that deals with performance evaluation and what that does is they assess judgments delivered, how judges are performing their functions,” she said while also admitting the problem with appointment of Judges. “I know that there are a lot of complaints at the moment about the process of appointment of judicial officers. This is an area that I am also going to take very seriously. The NJC also has a committee working on this to ensure that we make the screening process rigorous, transparent, and something that the citizenry will be satisfied with when judges are appointed.”
There can therefore be no better time than now for that reform. The crisis of credibility afflicting the judiciary has taken a serious toll on the institution whose image in the eyes of most Nigerians is now severely battered. The function of law as an instrument of social engineering can only be made difficult when judges compromise their oath by acts of omission or commission. We hope Justice Kekere-Ekun will fulfill her promise.
