N/Assembly should support greater funding for judiciary – Nwankwo

Clement Nwankwo is pioneering Nigerian human rights defender and the founder of Nigeria’s first human rights organisation, the Constitutional Rights Project (CRP). He has worked for more than two decades promoting human rights and the rule of law in Nigeria. In this interview, he speaks on the judiciary, INEC and sundry other issues.  Excerpts: Do […]

Clement Nwankwo is pioneering Nigerian human rights defender and the founder of Nigeria’s first human rights organisation, the Constitutional Rights Project (CRP). He has worked for more than two decades promoting human rights and the rule of law in Nigeria. In this interview, he speaks on the judiciary, INEC and sundry other issues.  Excerpts:

Do you agree that the present administration is harassing judges and lawyers?
I don’t know what you mean by harassing but I know that there have been comments made by the president that suggest impatience to judging. I think that the president of the country needs to be very careful in discussing judges publicly because of the consequences it has on the idea of independence of the judiciary. What the president needs to do is take a step to strengthen the independence of the judiciary and that means the country needs to invest more in the judiciary. Making comment that tends to reduce public opinion about the judiciary, ultimately doesn’t help. Certainly, there are concerns about several other sectors of the country and two key institutions are important, the judiciary and the electoral commission and it is important that those who hold political office do not say or do things that undermine the way the ordinary citizen perceived these institutions.
The NASS has been accused of appropriating miserly amounts in the budget to the judiciary, how do you react to this?
It has been lingering for the past four years.
So what is your take on it because the judiciary has also cried out and you mentioned strengthening the judiciary?
The Chief Justice of Nigeria is right in addressing this issue and I think the National Assembly and the executive need to support greater funding for the judiciary so that it can be able to fulfill its responsibility.
 The INEC chairman said that in 2015 election alone about 680 petitions were filed and INEC made a party. What does this indicate?
The law provides for petitions and certainly the law allowed the INEC to be made party to it.
 Where are we now on the 4th alteration to the constitution?
 Both chambers of the National Assembly have started work through their constitution review committees and those committees are making decisions on what to do with the 4th alteration bill that the former president Jonathan refused to sign. They have decided that they will prioritise it. So my expectation is that they have realised that a lot of resources have been spent and that means they would focus on getting the 4th alteration which has gone through several processes of public hearing, deliberation in committee, voting at the National Assembly and voting at the state level and then they will try to expedite action on the passage of the bill.
What happened to the last amendment because you were very much involved?
Well, the last amendment contained several clauses, the former president said he had objection on some of the clauses and those objections were stated by the Attorney General at the time, Mr. Adoke, for whatever it was worth, that those objections scuttled the process and meant that after the National Assembly and the state assemblies have endorsed the bill, the president refused to assent to it. So I think the National Assembly did its duty, but then the former president with advice, I will say ill-advice, from the former attorney general refused to sign it.
What about the Supreme Court aspect of the whole amendment?
Well, the case went to the Supreme Court; it shouldn’t have gone to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court should not have entertained the case because it was wrongly brought before it and the Supreme Court should not have attempted to mediate between the National Assembly and the attorney general because it was not proper for it to do so. So I think what the Supreme Court did was wrong in getting involved in the whole situation.
Now do you agree that the National Assembly should no longer waste time and money on public hearing in the 4th alteration?
Giving that the previous National Assembly (the seventh assembly) had undertaken the legislative processes through public hearing, debates, voting and same at the state level – the 7th National Assembly had even done public hearing in all of the constituencies before they came to that conclusion – I think that having gone through all of that, what the National Assembly should try to do is to put the bill in the public domain so that, unless there are stronger voices and objections within the population it doesn’t need to go through another round of the same process.
Still on the constitution, is there any issue you want to talk about?
Well, there are issues of great importance, especially the issue of the Land Use Act. I think that this was omitted and it is really very key and very important. There is the issue of strengthening local governments and making them more accountable. These are issues that were discussed in the last session but which the National Assembly ultimately did not pass. I think that these issues are key and important and need to be examined.