Democracy Day: Lawyers speak on justice sector in one year

As the country marks 19th Democracy Day on May 29, lawyers have reviewed the judiciary in the last one year. Excerpts:   Barr E.M.D. Umukoro In the last one year of the country’s judiciary there are the high moment and of course the low moment. The high moment for me have been the fact that […]

As the country marks 19th Democracy Day on May 29, lawyers have reviewed the judiciary in the last one year. Excerpts:

 

Barr E.M.D. Umukoro

In the last one year of the country’s judiciary there are the high moment and of course the low moment. The high moment for me have been the fact that some of the judges have tried as much as possible to be consistent in their judgments. One of it being the issue of whether the National Assembly can suspend their members beyond 14 legislative days. And you can see that most of the judgments that were given: that of Abdulmumin Jibrin and Ovie Omo-Agege have been consistent. So, the judiciary in that respect have been scored very high, and they have been very consistent in ensuring that people are not just locked up; people are not just sent to kill by reason of the fact that government just drafted charges and dragged the people to court. But they try as much as possible to ensure that they look at what the law says and if there are no prima facie case against those people, of course they discharge the defendants. 

But the low moment has been that there have been delay in cases. That is a very serious matter when it comes to hearing of matters expeditiously. There have been delays of criminal or civil cases; matters in Appeal Court and Supreme Court. Of course, there is a saying that ‘justice delayed is justice denied’. So generally speaking, within the last one year, it has not been very easy for the judiciary. But I must commend the Chief Justice of Nigeria for doing all he can to ensure that the issue of corruption is being tackled and giving the right challenges to the members of the judiciary. 

But one of the challenges the judiciary continues to face is the issue of funding. If you go to most of our courts, they don’t have ACs and fans, so you find that our lawyers experience discomfort in courts. The issue of long hand writing by judges is another source of headache. You know we ought to go fast now. Above all these, the government has failed most times in obeying court rulings and orders. That for me makes mockery of the judgment that have been given by courts of competent jurisdiction. 

Barr Maxwell Okpara 

So far so good, we are not where we should be but we are not too far behind. The only area we are not doing well is the issue of judicial officers. We are getting to the situation where if your mother or father is a Supreme Court judge, automatically, you are going to be a magistrate or a judge. So if we can allow merit, it will be good.

Barr Abdulhamid Mohammed

In the last one year, the judiciary is faring very well especially, on the disposal of cases in superior courts of records like High Courts, Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court. The NJC is working very well in monitoring the superior courts and judges in these courts.

The area that needs to be looked into is the welfare of staff of every court in Nigeria. If welfare of staff is not looked into, fighting corruption in the judiciary cannot be possible. Also, infrastructure in the courts must be modernized to enhance the rule of law.

Barrister Nureyni Sulyman

The judiciary has always been living up to expectation even before the advent of this administration. However, since there is no perfection with any system, some of the bad elements within the system, Buhari’s administration has been able to weed them out. 

The administration further enforced and reinforced the zeal and monitoring mechanism for the judiciary. Both the bar and the bench have taken insight from the Change Agenda of this administration, especially as regards to compliance. When you look at most of the trials, Metuh’s trial as a case study, despite the attempt to delay the proceedings, the court has been able to stand its ground in compliance with the novel provisions of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) in Sections 226(1) and 349.

So, I am of the opinion that the judiciary has been in line with the Change Agenda of this administration especially as it has to do with the war against corruption.