By Lillian Okenwa
Rights advocate and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr. Femi Falana has said: “The appointment of Nigerian judges is sufficiently transparent.
Falana responding to an article by Law & Society titled: Adekoya’s call for transparency in Judges’ appointment echoes previous calls, held that: “The appointment of Nigerian judges is sufficiently transparent,. but the NBA has always colluded with the authorities to make a mockery of the process of appointing judges.”
He further stated that: “The names of aspirants are circulated to branches of NBA for comments. The comments are secretly written and sent to the authorities by bar leaders.
“The NBA has representatives in FJSC and NJC. Do the NBA representatives ever criticise the recommendations of both FJSC and NJC?
“The names of the Court of Appeal Justices recently recommended for the Supreme Court bench were published in the media. The Senate “confirmed” the 11 nominees without conducting any confirmation hearing.
“Did the NBA kick against the decision of NJC to restrict the nomination of Justices to Court of Appeal Justices? Did the NBA suggest to the Senate to subject the nominees to confirmation hearing in line with section 231(2) of the Constitution?
“What transparency are we talking about after the appointment of the 11 Justices has been “confirmed” by the Senate?”
Mrs. Funke Adekoya, SAN had through her her X handle questioned why appointment of judges is not as well publicised as at that of Senior Advocates.
Speaking via her X handle, Adekoya, SAN asked: “If elevation to SAN rank requires publication in the newspapers and comments on unfavourable candidates are requested, why is the appointment of judges who will be paid from public funds shielded from the public that they are expected to serve?”
On this issue, a former Chair of the National Human Rights Commission, Chidi Odinkalu, in his article A Captured Temple of Justice had written: “The judicial managers of the appointment process skew it deliberately to ensure pre-determined outcomes. This will not be the case if their children, spouses and mistresses (with whom they choose to fill many judicial vacancies) were that competitive. In 2020, for instance, the NJC advertised 15 vacancies for the FCT High Court but nominated 34 persons for appointment, with all of the non-advertised nominations going to the children or relatives of judicial insiders. It seemed clear that they were deliberately parsimonious with disclosure of all the vacancies, in order to be able to share those in an exclusive bazaar among judicial insiders…”
Previously, Justice Alaba Omolaye Ajileye of the High Court of Kogi State at his valedictory court session maintained that the process of appointing judicial officers in Nigeria is shrouded in secrecy and clandestineness.
Asserting that there are “evils associated with appointments”, Ajileye said: “Another evil is that recommendations of Honourable Judges and Honourable Justices don’t count. The act of calling for recommendations looks to me like a ritual, exercised merely to fulfil all righteousness. Those who would be appointed would still be appointed with or without recommendations.”
