‘Nigeria must discourage scramble for judicial positions’

The Nigerian judiciary is accused of delivering questionable judgments at various levels of the system. What can be done? There is need to revive judicial ethics in Nigeria to ensure that it is not eroded to a level that will so weaken it and make it unable to perform its constitutional role. The consciousness of […]

The Nigerian judiciary is accused of delivering questionable judgments at various levels of the system. What can be done?

There is need to revive judicial ethics in Nigeria to ensure that it is not eroded to a level that will so weaken it and make it unable to perform its constitutional role. The consciousness of the existence of a problem and the need to treat it is the most important step towards its treatment. You cannot treat what you do not know exist.

The decay of a civilization accelerates when it does not realize its decaying condition or when it realizes and refuses to do anything about it. The Nigerian Judiciary can only remain healthy and capable of advancement if it deals with the problem of eroding judicial ethics with a sincere, objective and decisive action.

Before now we had a respected judiciary…

You are right! The Nigerian Judiciary is built on a foundation of strict observance of judicial ethics. On this foundation developed a very deep-rooted judicial culture and tradition of consciously cultivating and promoting the highest standards of moral and intellectual integrity.

This culture produced great judges like Jibowu, Ademola, Elias, Idigbe, Taylor, Onyema, Udoma, Alexander, Williams, Nasir, Ojeta, Eso, Obaseki, Aniagolu, Bello, Agu, etc.  The list is too long to reproduce.  These are respected judges in and outside Nigeria. Their excellent judicial service in many countries and in international courts where some served have attracted enduring respect for the Nigerian Judiciary and judges.

In The Gambia, great jurists like Ayoola, Olatawura, Ejiwunmi, Akanbi, Abdulahi, Omosun, Yusuf, Abubakar and Ihekire served in the Gambia Court of Appeal. Others like Wali, Ogwuegbu, Mohammed and Tobi sat in the Supreme Court.  Ayoola and Omosun were chief justices of The Gambia at different times.  Currently, Mukhtar, one of the brightest judges in Nigeria’s Supreme Court is sitting in The Gambia Supreme Court.  They all have left indelible imprints in the judicial landscape earning the admiration of Gambians for Nigeria Judiciary and its judges.

Many Nigerian judges are widely acknowledged and admired for their good moral standing, high standard of professional ethical conduct and great intellectual ability exhibited either as a private legal practitioner, law officer, magistrate or law teacher.

These days, there appear to be question marks on some judges in the country, is it that they lobby for positions?

Let me make it clear; any person who engages in any form of lobby to be made a judge was not appointed for that reason.  All appointments and promotion of judges of superior courts were based on merit.  Judges were very conscious of the public perception of their judicial work and conduct. Judges were then contented with their salaries (which then were very low).  They were more focused on honour than anything else and were respected for their moral and intellectual integrity. The administration of the judiciaries and their finances were ethical and very transparent.

So what is happening to the renowned judicial ethics?

I dare say that the tradition of strict observance of judicial ethics, excellent judicial practices and very high public confidence in the judiciary is fast eroding; some hold the view that it has completely eroded. I am aware that efforts are on to revive the old tradition. However, we must consider the various dimensions of the problem; the history, causes and effects, previous and existing measures to deal with the problem and why such measures have failed.

I know that a lot has been done by judicial administrations to arrest this trend of declining ethics. Disciplinary measures have been applied by established and existing disciplinary mechanisms to deal with incidents of unethical judicial conduct.  The result is that many judges have suffered dismissal and retirement from service for unethical judicial conduct. But these measures have not reduced or prevented the recurrence of unethical conduct. The problem has not only persisted by geometrically increased and become more widespread.

This problem of corruption is now having increasing effects on the government and society.

Agim: The multiplying nature of the problem has continued to worry successive judicial administrations and even the executive government.

I remember the intervention by the federal government of Nigerian then under late General Sani Abacha in response to the nationwide cry and disapproval of widespread corrupt practices by judges of local government election tribunals in 1996 or thereabout.  Most of the decisions of the respective local government election appeal tribunals were reviewed by the different divisions of the Court of Appeal across the country. Let me also recall the Kayode Eso panel report. Some judges were dismissed or retired based on the recommendations in the report. There was the Belgore panel of inquire instituted by the former CJN, Uwais to look into the allegations of corruption by judges of the Akwa Ibom State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal.  This exercise also resulted in the dismissal and retirement of the judges involved.

In spite of all these measures the problem has continued to multiply.  Its multiplication rate accelerated in the last 10 years to unimaginable dimensions culminating in the events immediately preceding the setting up of the Uwais Judicial reform panel.  Surprisingly, even after the setting up of that panel, the situation appeared to persist if recent reports of allegations of corruption and other unethical behaviour in the current election tribunals are anything to go by.

What can be done to remedy the situation?

We must re-orientate judges and administrators of the judiciaries to develop a more positive mindset.  There is an emerging preference for corrupt judicial practices and mindless acquisition of wealth. This mindset understands judicial office as a means to amass wealth and influence and nothing else.

Sadly, many judicial officers are no more interested in the honour and reputation of a morally upright and intellectually brilliant judge that dispenses justice without fear or favour.  The austere, morally upright and brilliant judge is no longer respected and is fast becoming endangered species.  The rich and influential judge that is bereft of moral and intellectual integrity is now more respected both within and outside the legal profession.

So to revive or sustain strict adherence to judicial ethics we must re-orientate our judges to understand the purpose and role of judicial office in society.

Lack of judicial honesty is said to be responsible for irrational decisions that continue to emit from our Courts.  What is your view?

Agim:  The impetus for this judicial misbehavior is that judicial officers do not personally suffer some measure of discipline for such decisions.  The option is to appeal against such decisions to an appellate court. The consequences of such decisions are often limited to the vitiation or invalidation of the judicial process itself and not extended to the judge responsible for the brazen disregard of the law and the facts in a clearly very deliberate manner.  Such judges do not feel responsible for frustrating the public’s legitimate expectation of law enforcement, the huge efforts and expenditure.  The frequency of these decisions particularly in cases involving money laundering, corruption and other financial crimes has brought the judiciary to disrepute and loss of public confidence.

I think that our judicial accountability mechanisms should be adjusted to include personal accountability for our judicial decisions. There should be a mechanism for the discipline of judges for deliberate disregard of the law and procedure and the facts of a case.  This is the only way of ensuring that we are really independent in our decisions. There can be no judicial independence without judicial accountability or adequate judicial accountability measures to promote judicial honesty and strict adherence to judicial ethics.

How do you see the appointment or promotion of judicial officers in the country?

Appointments and promotion of judges must be based on merit and follow due process.  The personal history and integrity of the person to be appointed must be thoroughly scrutinized.  You encourage contempt for judicial ethics and cultivate unethical and corrupt judges when their appointments are in disregard of merit, due process and matters of integrity and the personal history of the person to be appointed. Judges appointed through a corrupted process will have no regard for judicial ethics and are likely to be corrupt. Such appointments deprive the judiciary and the society at large the benefit of having judges that respect judicial ethics.

We must discourage the desperate scramble for judicial appointments and promotions. An objective and more reliable mechanism for appointing persons of good moral and intellectual standing as judges must be put in place.