1: Respectfully Proposed:
That going forward in future exercises, elevation of any member of a Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT) to the Supreme Court should be placed on hold for a minimum of two years after conclusion of the assignment, for the following reasons:
a). If the Tribunal judgment happened to have been favourable to the government in power, the elevation of one or two of the honourable members thereof to the Supreme Court within one year of their said decision may be construed by an undiscerning public as reward for the job done, no matter how honest and perspicacious the decision was, or how deserving their elevation is.
b). Perception being reality, we ignore public perceptions however undiscerning they are, at our own peril. The justice sector in Nigeria cannot afford further dent, however unfair, on our collective image.
c). This suggestion is not intended as a punishment on those who served in the Tribunal but to navigate our esteemed sector out of avoidable opprobrium.
2: BEST SUGGESTION:
Vacancies in the Supreme Court and indeed, all courts should be filled in real time. The fact that as many as eleven vacancies are permitted to exist in the Supreme Court is an affront to the very idea of justice, and undermines jurists on the bench of the Supreme Court growing in experience. Permit me to explain, for example. JSC Ngwuta’s replacement would have garnered about two years experience on the Supreme Court bench by now, if a replacement exercise had commenced as soon as Ngwuta JSC departed two and half years ago. But whoever replaces him on the bench of the Supreme Court, has lost between two and three years experience on that bench of appointed in the next couple of months.
Experience obtained as a Justice of the Court of Appeal does not make up for the experience garnered as a sitting Justice of that Sui Generis court, the Supreme Court.
Thank you.
I.A. (Kizor) Akaraiwe, SAN
The proffered solution by my highly esteemed learned friend, Ikeazor Akaraiwe, is rather harsh. Why should a justice have to wait for two years, or bypassed for promotion for two years, simply because he or she served on the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal? Why should he be punished for serving the country in a very hot and high-pressure assignment?
To take the argument further, would Akaraiwe SAN waive the two year wait if the justice decides against the ruling President? Are we not then inviting the justices to pervert the course of justice for personal gain?
Mr Akaraiwe, SAN argued, correctly and reasonably, that the position of late Ogwuta JSC who died two and one half years earlier should have been filled soon after his death. He argued that it would have allowed his successor to have garnered two years experience on the apex court. The more reason why Mr Akaraiwe’s advocacy for delay of two years for justices serving on the PEPT before being elevated to the Supreme Court is surprising.
We need to fill vacancies on the Supreme Court as they arise. The prior service of the justices on the election tribunal should be irrelevant, unless there is evidence of corruption, or other malfeasance, by the affected justice
Many thanks for your intervention Doc!