Justice Mukhtar leaving a judiciary that musn’t relapse

Justice Mukhtar leaving a judiciary that musn’t relapse

Justice Mahmud Mohammed, Justice of the Supreme Court and a likely successor to Justice Aloma Mukhtar as the Chief Justice of Nigeria, has to continue the battle of flushing out the judiciary’s bad eggs on assumption of office. ADE ADESOMOJU writes.

The Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Aloma Mukhtar, may have started preparing for her exit on November 20, which is the day she will attain the mandatory retirement age of 70.

An indication of this came to the fore in April this year during a visit by some delegates from the Federal Road Safety Corps, led by the agency’s then Corps Marshal, Mr. Osita Chidoka, to the Supreme Court.

Some Justices of the Supreme Court, who joined the first female and the 14th Chief Justice of Nigeria (13th indigenous CJN) at her chamber to receive the visitors, were Justices Mahmud Mohamed, John Fabiyi, Olukayode Ariwoola, Clara Ogunbiyi, Kumai Akaahs and Inyang Okoro.

The delegation of the FRSC officials had visited the CJN, as the head of the nation’s judiciary to, among others things, seek her assistance in tackling violations of traffic rules through the engagement of more magistrates to adjudicate on cases at the corps’ mobile courts.

The magistracy, being a section of the nation’s inferior court system, is not under the direct control of the CJN, but that is not to say that the request by the FRSC was a misdirected one.

In responding to the request, Justice Mukhtar simply asked Justice Mohammed to address the issue raised by the FRSC officials, saying she would have left office by the time the FRSC mobile court project would commence.

Justice Mohammed is the next most senior Justice of the Supreme Court after the current CJN and he is the most likely successor of Justice Mukhtar if the tradition of appointment by seniority is not jettisoned in choosing the next head of the nation’s judiciary. By asking Justice Mohammed to address the issue, Justice Mukhtar was preparing her likely successor for the task ahead.

Come November 20, Justice Mukhtar will be bowing out of the nation’s judiciary with accolades signifying the quantum of zeal and courage she mustered and brought to bear in her attempt to reform and stamp out corruption in the nation’s judiciary.

Her speech on July 11, 2012, while facing Senate screening as a prerequisite for assumption of office as the CJN, could pass as her promises by which her 28-month administration would be assessed when she finally leaves office.

She had said, “On the perception of the judiciary by the public, indeed as it is as at now, it is very bad and I am saddened by it. But, then, I said earlier on, I will try, I don’t want to sound like a broken record. I will try to make sure that the confidence reposed in the judiciary, as it were before, will be returned. I will try as much as possible to ensure that the bad eggs that are there are flushed out; that there will be a cleansing by the National Judicial Council based on petition.

“It is sad that the ordinary man on the street thinks and feels that he cannot get justice. This is because of the situation we find ourselves. I will ensure that this perception changes.”

The perception may not have taken a complete turn, but no doubt, Justice Mukhtar had courageously initiated a reform which if sustained would lead the judiciary to the desired destination.

Justice Mukhtar, who was sworn in as the CJN on July 16, 2012, after she had been earlier cleared by the Senate on July 11 of the same year, was barely nine months in office when the influential Newsweek British magazine noticed her unprecedented efforts towards repositioning the Nigerian judiciary.

In the April 8 – 15, 2013 edition of a respected magazine, Justice Mukhtar was named as one of the ‘125 women impact’ in the world.

Specifically, it was an honour bestowed on her for her commitment towards ridding the nation’s judiciary of “criminals”.

“In a country notorious for its crooked officials, Nigeria’s first female Chief Justice, Mukhtar, has built a reputation as an unwavering reformer unafraid to root out criminals,” the magazine had said of the CJN.

The CJN did not only use every opportunity she had to condemn corruption in the nation’s judiciary, through actions beyond spoken words, she also ensured that the law took its course in addressing the corruption allegations leveled against judicial officers.

She gave an insight into the challenges in the nation’s judicial system and her efforts to address them in her speech at the opening ceremony of a two-day workshop organised by the Nigerian Bar Association Action Group held between May 13 and 14, 2013. The event, which held in Lagos, was tagged, ‘The rule of law – the bedrock for sustainable democracy’.

“There is indeed no reason why a judicial officer who sits over trials should not be made to come under trial in deserving cases, as a person who cannot follow must not lead and a person who cannot practice incorruptibility must not sit at judgment over others and find it humiliating to stand trial,” she said.

The statement seemed to be the guiding principle of the CJN, whose efforts to remove the bad eggs in the nation’s judiciary is unprecedented.

She did not blame the problems in the judicial system on only judges but also on litigants and lawyers who write “petition as an alternative to appeal”.

She said, “What is more worrisome is that members of the Bar who are learned in the country’s legal system have indulged themselves in this negative practice. This has led to an influx of frivolous petitions before the National Judicial Council.

“On my assumption of office as the Chief Justice of Nigeria and Chairman of the National Judicial Council, I inherited 139 petitions, 106 of which were vexatious or baseless, only 33 of the petitions were considered worthy of attention.

“After my assumption of office as the Chief Justice, 198 fresh petitions were filed, of this number, 150 were found to be frivolous, 15 are awaiting responses from judges and only 21 were slated for consideration.

“We must always remain conscious of the fact that anybody who raises an allegation of corruption against a judicial officer must be ready to substantiate it.

“Anybody who also offers baseless allegation must in line with the relevant statutes must be to face the long arms of the law.”

She also lamented the plummeting confidence of the public in the judiciary, which she said had been “previously implicated in validating authoritarian rule and thus undermining the rule of law’.

“A firm stance will enable the judiciary earn credibility, promote justice, foster peace, contribute to societal recovery and most importantly promote the rule of law,” the CJN added.

She also warned judicial officers to ensure the sustenance of the confidence of litigants in the judicial system, as according to her, the entire society will be at the receiving end of the spillover of the resulting crisis of confidence of a perverse judicial system.

She said, “Instituting a suit in court is an explicit expression of trust and assurance in the honesty and strong moral principles of the umpire; that is to say that the intending litigant believes that the umpire will be unbiased and give him/her what he/she deserves, positively or adversely.

“However, where that assurance is being questioned, then the judiciary is said to be suffering from a crisis of confidence and this may spill over into the society at large.

“Every judicial officer must therefore be interested in actively participating in the establishment, maintenance, enforcement and observance of a high standard of conduct so that the integrity and respect for a credible judiciary can be preserved.”

Also in May 2013, she gave an indication that the NJC would be disciplining judges based on their level of performance.

She dropped the hint in her office while receiving the ‘Nigeria’s Judicial Performance Evaluation 2008 – 2011’ from the officials of the Nigerian Institute of Advance Legal Studies led by its then Director-General, Prof. Epiphany Azinge (SAN).

While receiving the seven-volume report, the CJN expressed dissatisfaction over the performance of some judges who she said could not even deliver up to two judges in a year.

She said, “We are now looking at the performance evaluation of the judges for the purpose of discipline. If a judge cannot deliver three to four judgments in a year, there is no use keeping him on the bench other than to show him or her the way out.”

She also berated the lateness of some judges to court, an attitude which she said was unfair to litigants.

The CJN told the NIALS delegation, “These litigants are human being. They go to court sometimes with their witnesses and lawyers and were told that the judges were not around. Sometimes after coming to court without seeing the judges, they abandoned their cases in court. It is not fair.

“These are part of the reasons the NJC undertakes performance evaluation from time to time both at the trial and appellate court to determine productivity of judges and their courts in the states and the Federal Capital Territory.”

The enforcement of the performance evaluation of judges is part of the tasks Justice Mohammed, the most likely incoming CJN, observers say he must begin to execute on assumption of office, to avert any relapse to the bad days.

In a recent interview with this correspondent, a former President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Mr. Joseph Daudu (SAN), captured the expectation of Nigerians as, “There must be no sacred cows within the legal system now and in the future.

“Secondly, the incoming CJN must ensure that appointees to judicial positions are sourced from the best materials and are not chosen on the basis of extraneous considerations.

“Thirdly, the fight against corruption must not only continue but must be seen to be efficiently and courageously prosecuted.”