“It is an aberration that the apex court will be starved of its maximum number of Justices… [Justice should] not only be for the politicians but also for the ordinary Nigerians who also have their cases pending in the regular courts.
The Judiciary in Nigeria is presently on a sick bed. It needs urgent surgery. Every election cycle in Nigeria always brings pain and frustration to litigants in regular courts. Because of the constitutionally prescribed time limits for the hearing of both pre and post-election cases, the courts and tribunals must hear and conclude thousands of election petitions.
It has been stated that Nigeria has the highest number of both pre and election cases in the world. We must de-emphasize the involvement of the courts in election matters. Ironically, Nigeria is also one of the countries in the world where its Judiciary begs the Executive arm for its survival. This is in spite of there being enough provisions in the Constitution that guarantee the independence and financial autonomy of the Judiciary.
The Supreme Court for some time now has not been hearing both civil and criminal appeals. Because of the acute shortage of the number of Justices on the Supreme Court bench, the few Justices available now concentrate on election appeals. Even chambers’ hearing of non-contentious applications no longer takes place. It is an aberration that the apex court will be starved of its maximum number of Justices. The workload takes a huge toll on the health of the Justices. They are humans too, not machines.
The same scenario plays out at the Court of Appeal and the various High Courts. Many of the Judges/Justices have been assigned to Tribunal duties, thereby suspending regular sittings in their courts for months. No sane country shuts down its judiciary because of election cases that involve a few. Urgent steps must be taken to address this worsening situation so that justice will not only be for the politicians but also for the ordinary Nigerians who also have their cases pending in the regular courts.
I am aware that the Nigerian Bar Association has made several interventions on this issue. Past and current NBA Presidents have called for the filling up of the existing vacancies on the Supreme Court bench. The Federal Government has its own full complement of the constitutionally mandated number of Ministers. Ditto the National Assembly. Why should the case of the Supreme Court be different?
In a true democracy, all three arms of government are co-equals. The federal government should stop disrespecting the Supreme Court. Also, many of the States High Courts are crying for more Judges to be appointed and the few they have are still taken from them for election duties. This must stop.
Going forward, we may have to adopt the strategy of deploying credible and untainted retired jurists to be handling election petitions at the Tribunals. The aphorism that justice delayed is justice denied is now a reality with cases at the regular courts. Very sad but we cannot continue like this.
