Why does it take too long to cook?
“You cannot be naked and expect that there will be an opportunity for you to put your hands in your pocket” – John Gambo Laah from chongaichronicles.com As young Nigerians discussing the state of the nation, Gabriel Woji, a close friend and secondary school classmate of mine wanted to know why the Nigerian judicial system […]
“You cannot be naked and expect that there will be an opportunity for you to put your hands in your pocket” – John Gambo Laah from chongaichronicles.com
As young Nigerians discussing the state of the nation, Gabriel Woji, a close friend and secondary school classmate of mine wanted to know why the Nigerian judicial system which is pivotal to economic development of any country, seems to contribute less in boosting foreign investor confidence to invest in the country. He expressed sadness on how it takes too long to get justice in the country, and likened the situation to a chef having all the ingredients to prepare a meal, yet prefers to only boil water for countless hours.
To be fair to the Nigerian judiciary, and speaking as a member of the Bar who has experienced firsthand how the court system works, the courtrooms can only function with what is readily available to them to perform their judicial duties. To my mind, it is not the judicial arm of government that is saddled with providing 24-hour power supply, neither is it the fault of the judges for the slow technological advancement and compliance with Information and Communications Technology in the country.
The Nigerian system as a whole still operates on an analogue level. Most of our correspondence acquire legitimacy and authenticity in their paper form; electronic documents are somewhat frowned at and yet to be generally accepted in the different agencies of government. The physical structure of our courtrooms and prison system is still yet to be digitalised, with epileptic power supply constantly bedeviling court activities and inadequate information technology (I.T) trained staff to transform court proceedings from paper form to electronic.
Kudos to the Supreme Court of Nigeria, and the Nigerian Bar Association for introducing the legal mail and making it mandatory for only legal practitioners with such mail to properly file processes at the apex court, creating a system where processes can be filed and served electronically, likewise notices of the court. A layman might wonder why emphasis on the analogue system and procedures can be responsible for the slow convictions gotten in court, in the words of Fela Durotoye the presidential candidate of Alliance for New Nigeria (ANN) at the presidential debate where he said “… it is easier to steal in Nigeria, than to catch a thief”.
In my humble opinion, the kind of structure available in the judiciary plays a great role in determining the speed at which convictions and judgments are gotten in Nigerian courts. Take for instance, in the Nigerian courts our judges still write proceedings personally in longhand in case files. Now imagine a court has five (5) cases slated for hearing in its cause list, and each party (plaintiff and defendant) decide to call two (2) witnesses that day, it then means that the judge of such particular court is going to personally write down the testimony of each witness in longhand, putting into consideration that for spoken words to be transmitted directly into writing, it has to be said slowly.
Lest we forget, every ruling or judgment of any case decided in the court rooms also has to be written down in long hand before being delivered.
Simply put, if a judge has over 100 case files in the court registry, it means that such judge has to write personally in longhand everything that transpired in those cases till judgment is delivered. The time and effort that ought to be dedicated to mental exertion in deciding the merit of a matter before the court, is divided with writing down proceedings that can be done in more advanced ways that do not involve the judge writing down personally everything that transpired in court.
So to my bosom friend, I say the judiciary does not have the necessary ingredients to cook a judicious meal as expeditiously as Nigerians would like to see, rather the judiciary is a result of the Nigerian system, and it is unfair to expect it to perform better than other arms of government with better resources and attention than the judiciary.