BEFORE Mariam Aloma-Mukhtar bowed out as the Chief Justice of Nigeria, she berated state governors at the 2014 conference of all Nigerian judges of the lower courts in November, in Abuja, for sabotaging the judiciary. Her fact sheet: across the states, some courts sit in rented apartments, classrooms and village town halls; all insecure environments for court proceedings, and their disregard for the constitution, which they swore to uphold.
Though Aloma-Mukhtar carried the visage of a reformer with the sack of a few judges, there is a sense in which it could be said that she left the judiciary the way she met it: an institution whacked by corruption and inefficiency. According to her, she inherited 139 petitions, but “…only 33 of the petitions were considered worthy of attention.” A fresh 198 petitions were filed during her 28 months in office, of which “only 21 were slated for consideration.” But she explained that “15 are awaiting responses from judges” as of November this year.
But Mahmud Mohammed, the new CJN, who succeeded Aloma-Mukhtar, sees things differently. He told the Senate during his screening that both the Bar and the Bench were the millstones of the judiciary. This is the plexus of the matter.
The activities of some legal practitioners have eroded the dignity of the profession, climaxing in some judges becoming merchants of the ignoble trade of perverting the course of justice. “The problem is with us. We don’t want cases to finish quickly. We don’t tell our clients the truth even if they don’t have a good case,” Mohammed intoned candidly as he was being quizzed on the prevalence of conflicting judgements.
Under Aloma-Mukhtar as the chair of the National Judicial Council, the apex judicial disciplinary body, some judges were sent packing. But Nigerians may never know in clear terms why they were fired.
However, granting of suspicious ex parte motions, improper exercise of discretionary powers and turning of Election Petitions Tribunals into acres of diamonds are commonplace in the country. The late Justice Kayode Eso, who was infuriated with the cash-and-carry nature of electoral litigation, once said they had produced “billionaire judges.”
His observation was shared by a former president of the Nigerian Bar Association, Joseph Daudu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria. “There is a growing perception, backed by empirical evidence, that justice is purchasable, and it has been purchased on several occasions in the country,” Daudu once said.
What is intriguing about this buccaneering tendency in the judiciary is the role of retired justices. A former President of the Court of Appeal, Ayo Salami, slammed them in April, at the conference of the Ilorin branch of the NBA. He said, “It is my respectful view that appeal should be made to those retired senior justices to leave the despicable role of bribing or intimidating judges.”
Salami’s outcry was preceded by a revelation from the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Ibrahim Auta, who told the House of Representatives during a public hearing that cases were deliberately delayed, fuelled by graft. He said, “Corruption is the only reason that explains the snail speed at which the administration of criminal justice is moving in Nigeria. Some judges are looking at the slightest opportunity to avoid sitting.” This is indeed, farcical.
We have had enough of this sound and fury without naming and shaming the culprits. It is this ostrich behaviour of legal practitioners that has helped to embed corruption in the judiciary.
We consider corrupt judges as worse enemies of the society than armed robbers. In developed societies “corruption in a judge’s seat does not go unpunished,” says Richard Pilger, the prosecutor in the case against a United States judge, Thomas Spargo, who attempted extortion and bribery of $10,000 in New York. He was jailed 27 months. Pilger had told the presiding judge that “without a legal system free of impropriety, nothing works.” We could not agree more!
As Mohammed takes over the baton from Aloma-Mukhtar, playing an activist role is of essence. One way to evince this is to unmask the rogues in the Bench, which Salami, Auta and Daudu alluded to, and put them in the dock. We can’t appreciate why the NJC under Aloma-Mukhtar gave the 15 judges it had queried, till eternity to respond, in a matter as grave as impropriety in the hallowed temple of justice.
On the integrity of our judiciary, the freeing of James Ibori here, only for him to be sentenced to 14 years in prison in England on corruption charges while serving as the Delta State governor, will always be a reference point of how depraved the system has become. The country has to exorcise this incubus from our judiciary. Without doing so, the money laundering cases against former governors and their confederates pending in various courts will remain at the level of defendants filing objections, a nuisance at the heart of delaying of cases and perverting justice.
From 2006 when Alfa Belgore became the CJN and retired the following year, to the incumbent, the country has had six CJNs. There is always no time on their side to overhaul the judiciary. Conversely, Justice Adetokumbo Ademola, was in the saddle for 14 years, Mohammed Bello, eight years, and Muhammadu Uwais 11 years. These contrasting parallels should serve as food for thought for the authority that appoints new justices of the Supreme Court. Appointing younger but brilliant legal minds as justices will in the long run, end the short tenure of CJNs.
Punch
Though Aloma-Mukhtar carried the visage of a reformer with the sack of a few judges, there is a sense in which it could be said that she left the judiciary the way she met it: an institution whacked by corruption and inefficiency. According to her, she inherited 139 petitions, but “…only 33 of the petitions were considered worthy of attention.” A fresh 198 petitions were filed during her 28 months in office, of which “only 21 were slated for consideration.” But she explained that “15 are awaiting responses from judges” as of November this year.
But Mahmud Mohammed, the new CJN, who succeeded Aloma-Mukhtar, sees things differently. He told the Senate during his screening that both the Bar and the Bench were the millstones of the judiciary. This is the plexus of the matter.
The activities of some legal practitioners have eroded the dignity of the profession, climaxing in some judges becoming merchants of the ignoble trade of perverting the course of justice. “The problem is with us. We don’t want cases to finish quickly. We don’t tell our clients the truth even if they don’t have a good case,” Mohammed intoned candidly as he was being quizzed on the prevalence of conflicting judgements.
Under Aloma-Mukhtar as the chair of the National Judicial Council, the apex judicial disciplinary body, some judges were sent packing. But Nigerians may never know in clear terms why they were fired.
However, granting of suspicious ex parte motions, improper exercise of discretionary powers and turning of Election Petitions Tribunals into acres of diamonds are commonplace in the country. The late Justice Kayode Eso, who was infuriated with the cash-and-carry nature of electoral litigation, once said they had produced “billionaire judges.”
His observation was shared by a former president of the Nigerian Bar Association, Joseph Daudu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria. “There is a growing perception, backed by empirical evidence, that justice is purchasable, and it has been purchased on several occasions in the country,” Daudu once said.
What is intriguing about this buccaneering tendency in the judiciary is the role of retired justices. A former President of the Court of Appeal, Ayo Salami, slammed them in April, at the conference of the Ilorin branch of the NBA. He said, “It is my respectful view that appeal should be made to those retired senior justices to leave the despicable role of bribing or intimidating judges.”
Salami’s outcry was preceded by a revelation from the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Ibrahim Auta, who told the House of Representatives during a public hearing that cases were deliberately delayed, fuelled by graft. He said, “Corruption is the only reason that explains the snail speed at which the administration of criminal justice is moving in Nigeria. Some judges are looking at the slightest opportunity to avoid sitting.” This is indeed, farcical.
We have had enough of this sound and fury without naming and shaming the culprits. It is this ostrich behaviour of legal practitioners that has helped to embed corruption in the judiciary.
We consider corrupt judges as worse enemies of the society than armed robbers. In developed societies “corruption in a judge’s seat does not go unpunished,” says Richard Pilger, the prosecutor in the case against a United States judge, Thomas Spargo, who attempted extortion and bribery of $10,000 in New York. He was jailed 27 months. Pilger had told the presiding judge that “without a legal system free of impropriety, nothing works.” We could not agree more!
As Mohammed takes over the baton from Aloma-Mukhtar, playing an activist role is of essence. One way to evince this is to unmask the rogues in the Bench, which Salami, Auta and Daudu alluded to, and put them in the dock. We can’t appreciate why the NJC under Aloma-Mukhtar gave the 15 judges it had queried, till eternity to respond, in a matter as grave as impropriety in the hallowed temple of justice.
On the integrity of our judiciary, the freeing of James Ibori here, only for him to be sentenced to 14 years in prison in England on corruption charges while serving as the Delta State governor, will always be a reference point of how depraved the system has become. The country has to exorcise this incubus from our judiciary. Without doing so, the money laundering cases against former governors and their confederates pending in various courts will remain at the level of defendants filing objections, a nuisance at the heart of delaying of cases and perverting justice.
From 2006 when Alfa Belgore became the CJN and retired the following year, to the incumbent, the country has had six CJNs. There is always no time on their side to overhaul the judiciary. Conversely, Justice Adetokumbo Ademola, was in the saddle for 14 years, Mohammed Bello, eight years, and Muhammadu Uwais 11 years. These contrasting parallels should serve as food for thought for the authority that appoints new justices of the Supreme Court. Appointing younger but brilliant legal minds as justices will in the long run, end the short tenure of CJNs.
Punch
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