Judicial maltreatment is self-inflicted – Olisa Agbakoba

Many Nigerians are expressing worry that it seems the Nigerian Bar Association which you once presided over is not as vibrant as it used to be. What will you say is responsible for this?Well, since I left office as NBA President, I don’t like the idea of criticising my successors. However, we have a new […]

Many Nigerians are expressing worry that it seems the Nigerian Bar Association which you once presided over is not as vibrant as it used to be. What will you say is responsible for this?
Well, since I left office as NBA President, I don’t like the idea of criticising my successors. However, we have a new president.
Even though I didn’t support him on principle, because the NBA is based on tripod – the Eastern Region, the Northern Region and the Western Regions. It wasn’t his turn but he contested and he won. So, I accept him and I wish him well. And for me, that might be an early indication that he might do something that would surprise you and return the NBA to be one of the Nigerian leading civil society organisations.

Actually, what gave rise to Civil Liberty Organisation (CLO), which I was the founding president, was the long absence of the NBA. At that time, Babangida regime had destabilised it.  The role that NBA ought to play is one that should not be taken for granted. So it is my hope that the NBA will return itself to its role as the critical commentator on burning national issues.
Recently, the Judiciary Staff Workers Union (JUSUN) embarked on strike action to press home their demand for an independent judiciary. What is your position on this?
I really want to call on the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) to do this as one of her last acts in office and claim the glory the women claim for her. I am a member of the NJC and I will speak frankly. I am really disappointed that the NJC has not vigorously pursued this as it should be. I was very moved by the retirement of Justice Adekeye of the Supreme Court. When she retired, she had no house to go to. It was that, despite being a member of NJC, I went to court on the need for proper funding of NJC. JUSUN had also gone to court albeit on a different issue. What they are saying is that the presidency should have no power on the funding of NJC and that the council should always aggregate the budgets of all courts and submit for approval before the National Assembly.
The judgment of Justice Muhammed was also supported by judge of the State High Court in Ekiti State. So we now have verdicts, one from federal, the other from the state. We use the Ekiti verdict as an example for the state. So, we have won on two fronts.  We have created the constitutional frameworks for proper running of the judiciary. It is now up to the CJN to make policy statements on the cases I went to court for. So, JUSUN can take advantage of the case.
JUSUN is complaining that the salaries of the judges are not good. Truly, how much does a judge earn? I’m not sure it is more than N100,000 plus. It is terrible, I must confess. They are under-funded when you compare how the courts are funded with the other two arms of government – executive and legislative. Whereas, the judiciary is the bedrock of investments. It is the speed at which the court works. All these are what had been captured in Davos Conference. Let’s say they ask: “for how long will it take to resolve a dispute if I should bring a dispute involving a million dollar case in Nigerian court?” And they said, “It will take 20 years”, the investors won’t come.
In our office, we have a programme called: “Speed of justice”. And we say the speed of justice should be like a cure. A guy who has malaria, just like someone who has a legal problem, wants it solved as soon as possible.

It is unfortunate that Nigerian court is still antiquated up to the extent that you have to carry around cash while you are trying to file a case. Whereas this is what you can file at any time through e-filing in another clime. The courts require serious modernization, they are not mordernised. So, JUSUN demand is just a tip of the ice berg.
What is your position on the imbroglio that ensued over the appointment of the Chief Judge in Rivers State?
Well, there is no imbroglio over it at all. What happens is that there are interlocking agencies. The process starts by the Judicial Service Commission of the relevant states that looks at the vacant seat of Chief Judge and they balance it out geo-politically. There must be representation from each local government and senatorial district so as to ensure that every segment of the state is represented. We rejected the governor’s first nominee because the balancing act was not there.
In the case of Rivers State, when the names came to us, we needed to choose between one and two and we recommended Justice Agomago. And we said if you don’t choose Justice Agomago, you can choose Justice Okocha. And our rule is that you must be a judge of the state high court. And if it is in the case of the Acting Chief Judge, the most senior judge should be appointed. Justice AC Okocha doesn’t even have anything to do with it.
By the way when we were discussing it, he refused himself. He left the room. So, it is not true that he was the one that influenced our decision. How can he even influence 30 of us? So we said in this circumstance, what we can do is to appoint a chief judge in acting capacity. And that turned out to be Justice Okocha.
There is also the debate and this is where the bar has a different view from that of the bench. The law says to become a judge of high court, you must have been a judge for 10 years. To become judge of Court of Appeal, 12 years and that of Supreme Court 15 years. The NJC in its own wisdom added this aspect of seniority. So the matter went before Justice Lambo Akanbi. There were two cases before the judge actually and both were correctly decided. We asked who can be Acting Chief Judge, the judge ruled that such a person must be a judge of the High Court, in other words, Justice Agomago, being the President of the Customary Court, his appointment is wrong.
The second case is on the issue of seniority, we asked if Okocha’s appointment is in order based on seniority, the same judge said, no, the issue of seniority does not matter for as long as that person has not reached the retirement age which is 65. In other words, such a person might not need to be a judge and still become a Chief Judge. Where my friend, Amaechi, got it wrong was that he assumed the error that was the mandate that make Agomago qualified even though he is a judge of the high court. He ought not to have rushed in forwarding Agomago’s name to the state House of Assembly.

On the NJC part, even though I am a member, I am not too sure it is right to use seniority as the only basis of appointment. The NJC said it is taken for granted that there must be 10 years’ experience. But, can’t we add other conditions? And that condition is seniority. I am waiting to know what will be the verdict of the Appeal Court over this. Amaechi ‘s mistake was taking an inchoate decision and completing it. He ought not to have rushed in forwarding of the name to the House. He ought to have waited. That is my view even though Robert Clarke, my senior colleague in the bar, said he is justified. But I am waiting on the ruling of the Court of Appeal.
There is this insinuation that Governor Amaechi aligned to choose Justice Agomago because he wants to be sure that the Chief Judge will not be easily manipulated to impeach him. How true is this?
Well, I don’t know. What I know is that NJC does not act on issues like that. NJC doesn’t look at political considerations to make decisions.