By Douglas Ogbankwa Esq
I read with equanimity the comments attributable to the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria , Prof. Yemi Osinbajo at the annual dinner of the Body of Senior Advocates of Nigeria (BOSAN) , over the last week end ,where he stated that the Judiciary is not for the Bar or Bench , the Nigerian Judiciary is for the People.
How people based can the Vice President not be ? I do not brood over empty rhetoric’s , I am a proponent of reality in governance .The Nigerian Judiciary is for the Bar and Bench , for the benefit of the people. The attempt to downgrade stakeholders in the Judicial System is a ploy to present an unrealistic facade , more like a fait accompli , to continue the domination of Nigerian Judiciary by the Political Class and to limit the effective oversight , that the very vibrant and virile National Bar ,led by the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) President-Olumide Akpata , has exercised over the Judiciary at the moment. The relationship between the Judiciary and the Bar is like the one between the chick and the egg. The Bar gave birth to the Judiciary and all Judges came from among Lawyers , because with out their Call to Bar Certificate and a good recommendation from the Bar ,they would never have been Judges .
The statement of Vice President indicated above can be faulted for the following reasons :
The Nigerian Judiciary has no Jury System as is present in many countries of the world -which is a people based template of leaving the conviction or acquittal of alleged criminals to the decision of the People , who are picked intermittently to ultimately determine the guilt or other wise of alleged criminals. The Jury System gives the people a sense of belonging and a sense of ownership of the Judiciary. We do need this Jury System in Nigeria as some of the Decisions from some our Courts having Criminal Jurisdiction , have left much to be desired .Only a Judiciary that the people have a say in its activities can be said to belong to the People and not that is outside the basic understanding of the people.
Professor Osinbajo is an inside Insider ,while I am an out side insider in the trajectory of the Nigerian Judiciary. We both have insights in the issues plaguing the Nigerian Judiciary , chief of which are absence of the Independence of the Judiciary , which is predicated in the refusal of the Governors to accede to the Provisions of Section 121(3) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria , 1999 (As Amended) for monies standing to the credit of the Judiciary to be paid directly to Heads of Court ,the secrecy of the appointment of Judicial Officers and the lack of transparency in the process , as the process is not open to scrutiny by the people ,who wakes up and see names of Judges being announced on Television or Radio , which some times leads to imposition of out rightly incompetent Judges that are Political exposed on the Judiciary.Before the appointments of SANs , their names are put on National Dailies and Petitions are invited against them.
Why can’t we replicate this for the appointment of Judges? If the people who are now Judges go through half of the rigours SANs go through to become SANs , at least half of the Judges we have in Nigeria today would never have been Judges .It does not add up that the processes to become SANs are more rigorous than the processes to be Judges .Another problem is the poor renumeration of Judges and particularly magistrates and Presidents of the Customary Courts , who in some states do not even have official cars .Some Magistrates and Presidents in some States enter buses with litigants and Defendants in Criminal Cases , thereby exposing then to danger .The poor state of our Courts , some which are decripit and are not fit for Court Business ,some times the difficulty of the same people accessing justice :The Court of Appeal just imposed through their 2021 Rules 50,000 Naira deposit , before you can file an Appeal at the Court of Appeal , which will preclude poor people from being able to file an appeal in the Court of Appeal.Do all the challenges indicated above show our Judiciary is for the people?I leave that question for the Vice President to answer .
The Vice President has had a vantage position in Nigeria to at least advice that the Nigerian Judiciary should conform to International Best Practices.I was encouraged to study law (I actually wanted to be a Journalist) , when I saw the very powerful dictums coming from Nigerian Judges and Justices. I remember Justice Udo Udoma becoming Chief Justice of Uganda , Justice Omo Agege becoming Chief Justice of the Gambia .The cases of Ojukwu v Military Administrator of Lagos State ,Guardian Newspapers v AGF ,Gani Fawehinmin v IGP , Garba v University of Maiduguri were all determined under the Military Rule and in all these cases , the Judiciary stood with the People and Military Obeyed , not as it is in our Democratic Statement , with Prof Osinbajo there , the Federal Government has been observing the Judgments and Orders of Court in breach.Aside some courageous Judges today, a lot of Nigerian Judges churn out daily anti people judgments .You can imagine a Judge dismissing a case filed against the Federal Government on the illegal banning of Twitter on the ground the the Claimant can use other Social Media Platforms like face book and instagram , in the midst of the Provisions of freedom of speech and expression as enshrined in the Constitution .Does that look like a Judgment for the People ?
The Judiciary should open its space to accommodate the people.Let us integrate the jury system in our criminal courts .I commend the Multi Door Court House of Edo State for allowing people who are not Lawyers , but are qualified to be among their panel of neutrals .This is a people based approach to do justice . Assessment of facts can be done by any rational person .Let us truly integrate the people in our Judiciary.Currently , our Judiciary is esoteric and it exudes fear in the mind of people . Let us open it up .The Vice President can do more than sermonizing in this regard.Actions talks louder than words .
About the Author:
Douglas Ogbankwa Esq.,@ [email protected] , a Benin Based Lawyer , Writer and Policy Analyst is the Convener of the Vanguard for the Independence of the Judiciary and the President of the Benin Writers’ Society.
