Build more facilities to decongest prisons – Okocha
The CJN has said that lawyers can now be appointed as judges even up to the Supreme Court. What is your reaction? Are you “personally” looking forward to this? The learned Chief Justice of Nigeria has only restated what has already been stipulated in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It is most […]
The CJN has said that lawyers can now be appointed as judges even up to the Supreme Court. What is your reaction? Are you “personally” looking forward to this?
The learned Chief Justice of Nigeria has only restated what has already been stipulated in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It is most gracious of His Lordship. As you will see from the constitution, the qualification for appointment as a judge or a justice, even as a chief justice or chief judge, as the case may be, is basically stated to be in practice as a legal practitioner for a certain period of years. In practice however, only three persons had hitherto been appointed to the Supreme Court Bench directly from the Bar, namely the Honourable Justice Teslim Elias, the Honourable Justice Augustine Nnamani and the Honourable Justice Daniel Ibekwe. I do hope that the provisions of the constitution relating to the matter will now be applied as stipulated and as may be appropriate.
On the question whether I am personally looking forward to this, let me say again that I had long ago decided to be a legal practitioner, and to remain at the Bar. I am not interested in a career on the Bench.
Some movements in the legal profession are constantly clamouring for the abolition of the title of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN). What is your take on this?
The so-called clamour is ill-advised. All well-meaning and right thinking members of the legal profession agree that there is great merit not only in the institution of the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria, but also in the retention of the rank. It is a rank which was instituted to honour persons who have distinguished themselves in the practice of law, either as advocates properly so-called, or as academicians and law teachers who have by their written works and teaching capabilities contributed to the development of the practice of law. I must recall that at the Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) held in Kaduna in the year 2010, the Academic Forum of the NBA, under the chairmanship of Professor Ernest Ojukwu, SAN, organised a session of the conference to debate the matter. I was privileged to chairman the session, and arguments were heard for and against the call for the abolition of the rank. At the end of the day an overwhelming majority of the participants at the session voted for the retention of the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria. I am aware that in furtherance of that and other resolutions reached at that NBA conference session, the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee has since continued to fine-tune the conditions for qualification to be appointed a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, and I am satisfied that appointments now being made are properly articulated.
What is your suggestion on the perceived delay in our justice delivery?
Delays in our justice delivery system are real and palpable, not just perceived. The answer, the solution, and the required elimination hang on the following, namely:-(1) The proper establishment of courts, and by this I refer to the proper establishment of more courts, at all levels, taking into account the requirements of each state and of the federation, based on need and the volume of cases, including appeals filed before such courts. Some states need more courts than others, and some divisions of the federal courts need more judges and justices than others.
(2) The appointment of fit and proper persons to serve as adjudicators in such courts be they Customary Courts, Sharia Courts, High Courts, Court of Appeal or Supreme Court. Fit in all the terms of the word, including physical, mental and intellectual fitness; and persons with proper, again in all terms of the word, and with the zeal for the hard work which adjudication requires, and also persons who are not corrupt or prone to be corrupted.
(3) The provision of the required men, equipment and materials to enable the judges do their work with ease, e.g. trained stenographers, adequate recording and reproduction machines, etc. We should also include adequate security for the judges and the courts, as these days we hear of courts being unable to sit or being relocated because of fear for the safety of judges and other adjudicators.
What is your take on Alternative Dispute Resolution as a way to reduce cases in our courts?
Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) is always helpful, especially with respect to commercial disputes, to avoid taking every dispute to court. But we all know that ADR cannot be adopted for several other matters that are to be taken to court, such as criminal cases. Even the ADR matters invariably end up in court, so the rules and practices in respect thereof need to be fine-tuned to enable us reduce the number of cases that still come to court after ADR mechanisms have been adopted and applied.
What about plea bargain?
Personally, I do not believe in plea bargains. The law must be definitive in its stipulations, and in its application. Nigeria still has the great problem of corruption, and plea bargain, as a mechanism for punishment of criminal offenders, will be abused and misapplied by the criminal elements in the justice delivery system.
What is your opinion on the prerogative of mercy (as enshrined in sections 175 and 212 of the1999 Constitution as a means to decongest the prisons?
The exercise of the prerogative of mercy as provided for in the constitution was not designed to aid the decongestion of prisons, but to grant pardon to deserving persons who had been convicted of criminal offences. You may not know it, but the majority of persons detained in our prisons are not even convicted criminal offenders, but those awaiting trial. The solution to the problem of congestion in the prisons is to build more prisons, and expand existing facilities in existing prisons. It may interest you to note that some states do not even have prisons. E.g. Bayelsa State, which was carved out from the old Rivers State.
A recent report that a Federal High Court Judge in Kogi State sentenced a former chairman of a local government council in the state to two years for each of the 77 count charge (with the sentences to run concurrently) has met with derision from the masses that the judiciary may not be ready to support the war against corruption. What is your view on this?
The masses, i.e. the general members of the public, do not know how the courts operate, and what principles are to be applied in the sentencing of convicted persons. If the judge who passed sentence applied the wrong principles, or applied the principles of sentencing wrongly, the prosecutor is entitled to appeal against the sentence. Period.
What is your assessment of the anti-corruption war of the present government?
The anti-corruption war of the present government appears to be lopsided, and apparently targeted at particular individuals in the opposition political parties of today, while corrupt persons who are in the present government are apparently being shielded and made to look as “sacred cows”. The war against corruption must be total, and devoid of partisan political considerations. Sadly, that does not appear to be the case. Furthermore, the anti-corruption agencies of the State, the EFCC, the ICPC, and even the police, do not appear to be fully and properly equipped to fight corruption in Nigeria, and their capacities and capabilities in that regard do not seem to me to be satisfactory.