By Henry Uche
Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Kunle Adegoke, in this monitnored Channels TV interview gave assessment of the outgoing Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, Justice Olukayode Ariwoola and the recommended CJN, Justice Kekere-Ekun, among other issues in the judiciary.
How would you describe justice Ariwoola?
The time for assessment of a public officer should rather be at a time when such an officer is going out, that should be the final assessment to be able to pass a recommendation as to what such officer has actually achieved while in office; and the time has come for Honourable justice Ariwoola to actually be assessed by the public. One of such members of the public is my humble self, and I’m happy to be here on this program to give such an assessment. I would say that his achievements while in office as the CJN will be traced back to as an ordinary Justice of the Supreme Court. Well, when I say ‘ordinary’ that doesn’t mean to belittle the office of a Justice of the Supreme Court, but I mean to distinguish the office of a Justice of the Supreme Court from the office of the Chief Justice of Nigeria as the man that is at the apex of the apex Court itself. In that wise, his Lordship will not only be carrying out judicial functions but equally administrative functions. One will recall that what led to the ousting of the former CJN was some form of allegation that came from the members, the justices of the Supreme Court, with respect to highhandedness and maybe some financial impropriety by which they alleged that their affairs, their interests, were not being taken care of by the former CJN, justice Tanko. Under Justice Ariwoola, the Honorable Justice, we did not have any such allegation, that means the affairs of the Supreme Court were better piloted under his leadership, in other words, there were some form of magnanimity, love and camaraderie among the Justices of the Supreme Court. Equally, it was during the time of the Honorable Justice that the Supreme Court gave some landmark judgments which have been celebrated by majority of Nigerians. One of such is the decision relating to the local government autonomy, although the Supreme Court has been consistent in so many cases in the past with respect to what should be the role, the function, the status of local governments in Nigeria, and the position of that particular tier of government, whether an Independent tier of government, or it’s just an administrative appendage to the state’s government, and under the leadership of the Honorable Justice, we had the benefit of a decision of the Supreme Court that finally led to rest the agitations and the malpractices that have been recorded against the Governors in the administration of the local government.
We look forward to the situation in the future where the local governments will be able to deliver more on their mandates as prescribed in the Constitution, courtesy of the decision of the Supreme Court under the outgoing chief justice of Nigeria. Equally, I will say that with respect to the discipline of judges, we recorded fundamental decisions of the NJC -National Judicial Council, under the Honorable Justice Ariwoola by which a number of judicial officers were shown the way, and many others were disciplined in accordance with what the council found will be the meritorious decisions that should be given, to serve as a deterrent to others. In terms of financial management of the judiciary under his Lordship, till today, we haven’t heard any allegation of maybe malpractice or misappropriation of any sort, which I believe, if there have been one, there are many people in the judiciary today who would not want to keep such a thing under the carpet. His Lordship as an public officer of the judiciary will definitely will have one area or another where there will be criticism, but I will say overall, I will give His Lordship 70% or more with respect to his delivery as Chief Justice chief justice of Nigeria.
How 300% pay increase for judicial officers would influence performance, welfare
I believe that the process of making the judicial arm of government in Nigeria to be better functional and better in performance in terms of delivery of its constitutional mandate is a continuous process, and there are fundamental areas I think the incoming CJN will definitely have to work on. Those that have been addressed definitely will no longer require the new CJN to reinvest the will, however, the areas that have not been addressed by the outgoing CJN who had probably a period of two years within which he was able to serve in that capacity will require the new CJN to work harder on this. And I very much agree with you that increase in pay would not necessarily automatically guarantee a better economic conditions for the judges if the economy continues nose-diving; and that is where the government will need to work. It doesn’t only apply to the executive or the judiciary alone. Basically it applies to general members of the public. If there is increase in minimum wage from N30,000 to N70,000 Naira by the purchasing power, the purchasing capacity of an average Nigeria continues nose-diving as a result of the fall in the value of the currency. Definitely, it will make absolute rubbish of the increase. And that is an area that I believe the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and the current government are definitely working on, and one will expect that in the next few months there will be delivery in this respect, otherwise, the judgment of the masses may not be very favourable to the government, despite the efforts in increasing wages and remunerations due to judicial officers. So we are expecting a situation where there will be better remuneration packages, there will be better working conditions. Part of the better working conditions will be those things that will guarantee healthcare delivery in favour of the justices of the Supreme Court, the justice of the Court of Appeal and judges generally. When one looks at the circumstances under which they work, there are many things to be done to ensure that they will be able to deliver better. For instance, where there is a provision for more hands to assist them in research, in preparing their judgements and rulings and what have you, it will reduce the volume of work that is making many of them to grow or look older than their real age.
Aside from that, where a judge even retires, the retirement package should take into consideration: His health allowances that will be able to guarantee him access to quality health services, not only locally, but where necessary to even be able to seek better health Service outside the shores of the country where we are not able to provide such here, but it is our expectation that there will be no basis for anybody, whether public officer, private officer, or a private individual to have any reason to even travel out of the country if our healthcare service is really superlative and is able to deliver what an average Nigerian requires to be able to live a meaningful life. So this is an aspect one expects the government to really work on, and this will be of benefit of not only Justices of the Supreme Court, Appeal or other judges of the lower courts, but equally to general members of the public, and that is when the government can be said to have adequately delivered. There are so many other areas that I believe the incoming CJN will equally need to work on to ensure that the labour of heroes past would not be in vain.
Professor Chidi Odinkalu and others have raised the alarm over corruption in the judiciary at the apex level, this is evident in appointment and dispensing Justice in Nigeria, how can this stop?
This is a very key issue that you have raised, and nobody can take it away from the general assessment by the public that Nigerian judiciary is reputed to have been utterly corrupt. And this is not a fresh allegation. It is something that has become consistent with us for quite a long time. When the Honourable Justice Samson Uwaifo was retiring from the Supreme Court in 2007, his Lordship made certain allegations of corruption having crept into the Supreme Court. And it was quite scary, because nobody expected such a statement to come from a high officer of his standing, and when such a statement comes from such a person, it shouldn’t be taken with levity. Right from then, we have had several allegations of corruption in many areas of our judicial space. I have been raising this issue for quite some time that it is imperative for us to purge the judiciary of the corrupt elements within. It is not every judicial officer that is corrupt, but a few ones, the ones that are corrupt among them, have labeled the legal system and have destroyed substantially the integrity of judicial officers in this country. Sincerely, we have so many of our justices and judges who are always standing against being corrupted anytime such an effort is made by anybody. You can see, for instance, the lecture given by the honourable retired justice Amina Adamu Augie, recently, where Her Lordship categorically analyzed what happened before Her Lordship came into the Lagos court of Appeal and saw corruption that become so prevalent and endemic in the registry of the Lagos Court of Appeal, and by the time got there, many people felt that Her lordship would be cowed or terrified by those people who have become authorities and principalities in that place, but standing up against them, they were routed out of that place. Many judges were thrown to Maidugiri and others to many other parts of the country where they could not continue to hold people to ransom the way they have been doing as a result of having been in a particular place for so long. And this is one thing that the new CJN would have to work on. Many of our judicial officers, sincerely, are utterly corrupt, and the mode of discipline of judges must be sharpened, must be made real and must be made more effective. A situation where a judicial officer is found to have committed some malpractice and is given a pat on the back does not encourage the general populace to have confidence in such a judicial system. That is why many foreign investors will come into such a clime, knowing that the judicial system of the country can be corrupted, so they will come with the intention of corrupting the system. They know that officers in the legislature, in the executive, and more worrisome- the judiciary- could be corrupted. Definitely, such investment that is coming in is not to benefit the people. It’s not to benefit the country, but rather to rip off the country, knowing, at the end of the day where they are even taken before the judges in the land, they will be able to escape from being punished. This is where we need to critically look at. We have many judicial officers that are performing exceedingly well, but those that are corrupt among them are tarnishing the entire image, and they are destroying it. And with respect to recruitment, I will say that, yes, I must give kudos to my very good friend, Professor Chidi Odinkalu for always raising the red flag whenever he feels there is one. He might not be correct all the time, but on those instances that he has raised the alarm, we need to critically look into this. However, with respect to recruitment into judicial offices, I have raised this in the past that our judges must not only be people of integrity; yes, we need men and women of integrity to man our judicial offices. But it’s equally fundamental that they must be meritorious, they must be brilliant, they must be courageous. Where a judge is appointed on the basis of maybe affiliation or relationship with maybe a politician or with a judicial officer, and he gets there, that is not different from the system of paternalism which have been condemned in many political systems. For instance, I think China waged hundreds of years of war against paternalism, which has been alleged to our crept into our judicial system. However, there is a clause to this: We must query this, we must look into this. We must probe into it to see if those persons that were appointed and are set to have affiliations with, maybe a serving or retired judicial officer, actually merited the appointment, if they really merited it, it will be unjust to disqualify them because they are related to somebody. For instance, today, my father used to be a family judge in my hometown, family Judge, I mean within our own family. So if I become a family judge nobody should criticize me becoming a family judge.
The presidential aircraft bought amid economic deprivation
The issue concerning the Presidential aircraft that has just been procured is one that I know will agitate many, considering recent agitations from the people on the economic conditions of the country, and the fact that we recently witnessed mass protests across different states of the country, and in such a situation, what we expect that the leadership of the country will have to be careful in procurement that people might consider to be mere luxuries and not necessary. And to this extent where the leadership of the country considers a particular item to be a necessary, there must be the need to show why such a procurement is ultimately necessary. Now, otherwise, perception really matters. Where the people sees the item has been necessary to the performance of the functions of the office, there might be less agitation. But where such cannot be justified by the mass of the people, then we are calling for further resentment of the government from the masses, and that is something that no government can bear in a democratic dispensation. Where it to be military government, it might be a matter of, I don’t care whether the people like it or not, at least; I wasn’t elected, and I’m not looking for an election in any time again. But in a democratic dispensation, it requires that the government will have to do a lot of things, if only to pander to the sentiments of the people, and that is where the issue of the presidential jet having been procured in this situation might raise the question of timing. Because am not an engineer, even if I were to be an Engineer, I’m not responsible for manning or maintaining the Presidential jet. I cannot tell whether they are fit for purpose or otherwise, or the kind of maintenance that have been given to them in the past, whether it will definitely guarantee safety of the President and his officials. However, in a situation of this nature, I think timing, just as you have rightly raised, matters a lot. Nigeria, in all honesty, cannot be said to be a poor country. Recently, our income, our foreign reserves and everything have really gone up. But that doesn’t mean that we have to be wasteful. We are in a situation that requires the government to be more prudent in financial management and ensure that the mass of the people who have the perception that the government is working towards delivering on its mandate, amid the economic needs of the masses. The President is working, there’s no doubt about this. I have read quite a number of policies that they are cooking, having been in interaction with some people behind the scene who are telling certain efforts being made in terms of food production, in terms of security, in terms of delivery, generally. But at this particular point in time, it might raise a question of whether it is a necessary or it is a mere luxury that that the nation may not be able to afford.
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