Kalu, Agbakoba, Aluko, Audu, Others: What New CJN Must Do To Restore Confidence In Judiciary

Isioma Madike, Francis Iwuchukwu, Success Nwogu, Lawrence Olaoye, Tunde Oyesina

Following the swearing-in of Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun as the Acting Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) by President Bola Tinubu yesterday, some eminent Nigerians including the President himself, the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu and a number of lawyers, especially Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs) have given tips on what she needs to do as a matter of urgency to reclaim the glory of the judiciary and restore confidence in it.
The President and the governor gave their views during the ceremony in Abuja while the senior lawyers spoke separately with Saturday Telegraph, stressing the need for the CJN to among other things, fight the menace of corruption in the judiciary to a point of no return, ensure speedy dispensing of justice and discipline as well as engage in transformational and radical changes.
The lawyers charged Kekere-ekun to be prepared to reform judicial appointments in such a way and manner that nepotism and favouritism would have no role to play again.
Similarly, they also want the incoming CJN to rise to the challenge of arresting issuance of conflicting judgments and orders by courts of coordinate jurisdiction in the interest of the judiciary and people.
Besides, the lawyers further charged the new head of the judiciary to focus on discipline and accountability as a way of restoring the public interest into the arms of the government.
Another issue they suggested for the CJN to carry out surgical operations on is in the handling of election petitions and political cases which they held had dampened the belief of Nigerians in the judiciary with the sad experience of the recent past.
The legal practitioners also want Kekere-Ekun to reform the Supreme Court itself in such a way that only cases of national importance would be lodged at the apex court while minor matters should be made in the reform to terminate at the lower courts.

Ensure independence of the Judiciary, Tinubu urges CJN
President Tinubu yesterday urged Nigerian judges, including the newly sworn-in Acting Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), to always defend the independence of the judiciary.
The President, who said he expected that the Supreme Court would continue to play critical roles in the evolution of the nation’s democracy, gave this charge at the Presidential Villa.
Tinubu also promised to continue to support the judiciary and improve the welfare of judicial officers in the country.
The President said following the entrenched tradition of the Apex Court under the nation’s constitutional democracy and the recent interpretation of the 1999 Constitution regarding the financial autonomy of the local councils, “We expect the apex court to continue to play a critical role in the evolution of our constitutional democracy and shape up policies that impact all segments of Nigerian society.”

“I want to assure you that my administration will continue to provide appropriate support to improve the welfare and capacity of the judiciary.
“Continue to ease the Administration of Justice and promote the rule of law in Nigeria. This consideration informed expedited passage of the NASS and my consent to Judicial Officeholders Act of 2024 which approved a 300 percent increase in remuneration of judicial officers.
“This came on the heels of the appointment of 11 Justices of the Supreme Court in Dec 2023 which enabled the Supreme Court to attain its full complement of 21 Justices for the first time in decades.
“Let me also reassure you that the judiciary under this administration will continue to receive prompt and adequate attention in recognising its status as a driver of social order, rule of law, peace, security and economic development
“Undoubtedly, the position of the CJN comes with enormous responsibilities as the head of all judicial institutions in the country. It is a position of considerable influence that demands temperance and sobriety, the occupant must espouse the highest level of integrity in the discharge of duties. This is more so because of the finality of the Supreme Court judgement. I therefore urge your lordship to be faithful and loyal to the constitution when discharging your duty as the Acting Chief Justice of Nigeria. I also encourage you to defend the judiciary’s independence always promote course of Justice, strengthen mechanism for integrity, discipline and transparency in the judicial sector and pursue other reforms or initiatives to sustain public confidence in the judiciary.”

Continue with your predecessor’s reforms – Sanwo-Olu
The Lagos State governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu who spoke to newsmen after the swearing-in ceremony noted that the President had to cut short his working visit to France to ensure that there was no vacuum in the leadership of the judiciary.
He noted that Justice Kekere-Ekun would be the second female CJN, adding that she had seen it all having served first as a lawyer and in all the courts in the land before becoming the CJN.
Talking about Kekere-Ekun, Sanwo-Olu said: “She’s been an outstanding jurist and from her resume, she’s one of the only very few people that started first just as the lawyer and also passing through all of the various courts; Magistrate Court, the High Court, the Court of Appeal, and, of course, now becoming the Chief Justice of the Federation.”
He enjoined the new CJN to continue with the reforms initiated by her predecessor, Justice Oluwakayode Ariwoola, in order to further entrench the independence of the judiciary.

Kekere-Ekun: I’ll take judiciary to greater heights
Asked what her expectations were for the judiciary, Justice Kekere-Ekun said: “My expectation is that we will take the judiciary to higher heights; the reputation that it has, we will improve it; we will make sure that people have more confidence in the judiciary. I believe that it’s not a one man’s job, we all have to be on board and because we all see the areas that need improvement, I believe that there will be cooperation, because we all want to see a better judiciary.
“We’ll also be more particular about the process of appointment, I know it gives a lot of concerns: discipline on the bench, at the bar as well. All these things are aspects that we will look into and I believe that, by the grace of God, at the end of my tenure, we will have a judiciary we can all be proud of.”

New CJN must fight corruption to standstill – Awa Kalu
The first to speak was a professor of law and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Awa Kalu, who stated that the fight against corruption should be massive.
He said: “If she succeeds in bringing corruption in the judiciary under control, she requires not doing any other thing. That is the biggest challenge anybody on that desk has for now.
“The fight against corruption in the judiciary must start from the Customary Courts to all the courts in the land. It is a very big assignment for her.”
The professor of law however, discouraged the call that the Supreme Court of Nigeria should be unbundled for the justice delivery system in Nigeria to be enhanced.
According to him, “I don’t buy into it because we unbundled the NNPC, and it has not shown any different results.
“The Supreme Court is a court of 21 persons and because of the nature of the jurisdiction of the court, you can have a panel of seven today, and you can have a panel of five; both of them sitting at the same time.

“I must also say that the diversity of divisions has created its problems. One division of the Court of Appeal can give a contrary opinion to what another division is saying. In short, as far as I am concerned, the Supreme Court will minimise its mistakes by sitting in Abuja as it is.
“I have no reason to say that the Supreme Court can sit in Lagos and Abuja simultaneously and another one in Kano.
“The Supreme Court will perform better sitting in the same place, hold its conference and determine its precedents.”

Speedy dispensing of justice, discipline are critical – Ukweni
Another SAN, Mba Ukweni, declared that he expects the new CJN to look behind and see certain things that she felt were not done properly in the judiciary and then look forward to the idea of the judiciary that she has in mind.
“She should look backwards, examine where her predecessors have done well, examine where her predecessors did not do well, examine where her predecessors did fairly well and then the ones they did not do well, you keep them aside, the ones you can improve upon, you improve, then she may have the picture of what she expects the judiciary to be during her time.
“She should pursue and ensure that there is speedy dispensation of justice at the Supreme Court.
“She should ensure that there is discipline in the judiciary. There are plenty of problems in the judiciary as you see it now. The common man in the street has a way of looking at the legal profession now.
“If at that level, a Supreme Court Justice would retire and in his valedictory speech, he dwelled on the ills of the judiciary, it means that there is something seriously wrong.
“When we say the judiciary is the last hope of the common man, it is truly so. But when the common man is no longer getting justice because the politicians have infiltrated the judiciary, they have destroyed the judiciary, then that saying may not be obtainable.
“So, the new CJN needs to work very hard to insulate the judiciary from the politics of both the legislature and the executive. The judiciary is a professional arm of government. Being an arm of the government, it has a role to play.
“The CJN should ensure that the ethics of the legal profession are upheld. She should stick to the rule of law and not allow politicians to infiltrate the judiciary, bribe judges, dictate to judges and justices how they want judgments to go.”
On the call for the unbundling of the Supreme Court, the SAN said, “One of the reasons why there are many cases at the Supreme Court is because of the quest to become Senior Advocates.

“I support the call for the unbundling of the Supreme Court for another reason. During the election period, the Supreme Court is overworked because it attends to both regular and political matters.
“If we can have a situation where we could reduce the number of political matters going to the Supreme Court, it would go a long way in reducing the workload on the apex court.”

Agbakoba: CJN should carry out urgent transformational judicial reforms
Similarly, a former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Dr. Dr Olisa Agbakoba (SAN), urged the new Chief Justice of Nigeria to engage in transformational judicial reforms. He noted that the reform has become urgent.
The Senior Advocate of Nigeria opined that the last great reform by the CJN was carried out by the Late Dahiru Musdapher.
According to him, the potential legacy of the new CJN is transformational and radical reforms with the fundamental objective of case management driving how the courts work.
These were contained in his press statement yesterday titled: “Need for transformational judicial reforms.”
Agbakoba said: “We are witnessing yet another ritual of handing over of the Judicial baton with the swearing in of Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun. But it’s not about swearing-in. It’s about whether we will see radical reforms finally. The last great reform CJN was the Late Dahiru Musdapher! I was his consultant on Speed of Justice. Unfortunately CJN Musdapher only had six months in office. He set up a high powered 29-person committee that produced a transformational report.
“The late CJN led a team to the then president of the senate, David Mark, to present far reaching reforms to the constitutional structure of the Judiciary. As soon as the CJN turned his back, everyone forgot about it.
“The potential legacy of the new CJN is transformational and radical reforms with the fundamental objective of case management driving how the courts work.”

Prioritise sanitisation of judiciary –Audu
President, Nigeria Law Society, Chief Mela Audu, (SAN), on his part called on Justice Kekere-Ekun to urgently address key issues undermining judicial institutional integrity, effectiveness and service delivery as she settles down in her new office.
Audu, who congratulated the new CJN in an interview with Saturday Telegraph, noted that the Judiciary currently suffers from low public confidence, saying the anomaly requires urgent attention to restore integrity to the system.
Kekere-Ekun became the second woman to hold this prestigious position, following Justice Aloma Mariam Mukhtar, who served as CJN from July 2012 to November 2014. She will serve as the Ag CJN until her appointment is confirmed by the Senate.
Audu seized the opportunity of the interview to extol the virtues of the immediate past CJN, Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, saying: “We should appreciate people who are leaving the public service.
“He is currently the longest serving justice of the Supreme Court having spent about 11 years before his appointment as the CJN.
“The other reason we need to acknowledge his prowess is because there are notable pronouncements and judgements which he will be forever remembered with. It is during his time that we are now having about 21 justices in the Supreme Court. It is remarkable.”
The senior advocate says that Ariwoola has done his own part, hoping that the new CJN will take over from where he stopped and continue with judicial reforms to meet justice.
He said: “Our expectations are for Justice Kekere-Ekun to, at least, maintain the status quo if she cannot make giant strides in terms of judicial reforms that are aimed at bringing justice close to the people.
“There are higher expectations because she is a woman, younger and with her vast experience, having passed through all the hierarchy of courts.
“One of such major expectations is for her to decongest the backlog of cases, though most of these backlogs are not the fault of the outgone CJN.
“It was just recently that they had an additional 11 judges. That affected the court of appeal and the trial courts.
“It took a while for all these to synchronise and adjust for the effectiveness of the full 21 justices.
“There is also a backlog of cases that were not election matters related. They were neglected. Those ones are there and then you have pre-election matters, election matters and other cases that are not election matters in nature keep coming on appeal.
“I had had the privilege of entering the litigation process and I saw piles up of files of cases that are waiting for assignment and dates.
“It was up to the ceiling and I was not quite envious of any of the judges there because they are human beings first of all and they also have limitations in terms of strength, health which all of us suffer from time to time.
“We require and expect my lordship to be dogged, dynamic and innovative in finding ways through which all these cases will be handled so as to decongest the apex court.
“The apex court is not a garage where all situations from the court of appeal are dumped. There are some cases that are frivolous for appeal and there are some that they should advise counsel to withdraw.”

Audu also aligned with those advocating for decentralisation of the Supreme Court, saying it is a welcome development and a way of practicing a true federal system.

Aluko: Tackle conflicting
judgements
Another lawyer, Folarin Aluko while setting agenda for the new CJN urged her to urgently tackle the incidences of conflicting judgements and abuse of interim injunctions.
“There should be clear practice directions on management of territorial jurisdiction overlaps. It is suggested for this purpose that the structure and scope of such overlaps be agreed at the All Nigerian Conference of Judges and the Practice Directions should be uniform across all the court systems in the country,” he said.

‘Make equity, fairness and justice your watchword’
A Professor of Law, Prof. Ernest Ojukwu SAN in his submission advised the new CJN not to do anything that would make Nigerians emotional but make the principle of equity, fairness and justice her watchword.
Ojukwu also wants the court to devise a means of removing itself from election cases so that leaders would be the true choices of the electorates and not the court.
Another Law professor, Prof. Samuel Erugo, SAN, charged the new CJN to reform the Supreme Court in such a way that it can review its own judgements especially when there is great public outcry.
The Executive Director of Tap Initiative, Martin Obono, in his own submission observed that the National Judicial Council (NJC), which oversees the appointment of judges has of recent come under heavy criticism, especially with the outgoing CJN, Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, accused of appointing his family members and relatives as well as children and relatives of former justices into the bench.
While alleging that the Council disregarded its guidelines over recent appointments, Obono said: “There has been report of insider subversion of the applicable rules governing judicial appointments, such as the reported appointments in one instance of a candidate who scored zero in the NJC interview”.
He therefore urged the new CJN, “to commit explicitly to a policy of restoring integrity and merit to judicial appointments,” stating that achieving this would entail the introduction of transparent processes of selection, advertisement of judicial vacancies as well as in nomination of candidates, interview, short listing and final selection.”