Barring any last minute amendment to the 1999 constitution elongating the retirement age of Supreme Court justices, the 13th Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Mariam Aloma Mukhtar, is due to bow out of the bench on November 14, 2014, when she would have clocked the mandatory retirement age of 70 years.

She became the first female jurist to occupy the exalted seat on July 16, 2012.

Justice Mukhtar, during her screening and confirmation at the Senate on July 11, 2012, unveiled her agenda for the judiciary.

At the interactive session with the Senate which lasted about two hours, she identified sanitisation of the judiciary as the primary task before her, contending that the nation’s bench had been so desecrated that the ordinary man on the street believed justice could not be got in Nigerian courts on merit except when purchased.

“It is sad. But I don’t want to sound like a broken record. All I can say is that I will try to make sure that the confidence reposed in the Judiciary, as it was before, is returned. I will try to ensure that the bad eggs that are there are flushed out,” Justice Mukhtar promised Nigerians. Less than two weeks ago, the female jurist who was terribly bitter with the situation in the judiciary on July 11, 2012 at the senate where she took almost a gallon of water while unveiling her agenda, clocked one year in office.

Although all things being equal, the jurist still has one year, three months and two weeks from today on seat as CJN, the questions begging for answers are: what exactly has Justice Mukhtar done to cleanse the rot in the temple of justice, one full year in the saddle and has anything changed about public perception of the judiciary?

Many stakeholders in justice administration though felt that one year in office is too short a period to evaluate the performance of the CJN, Justice Mukhtar however felt that there was nothing strange yet in taking stock of her achievements and failure in office.

On May 13, this year, in Lagos, Justice Mukhtar at a forum organized by the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) set the ball rolling by rendering the account of what she had done so far when she got to office. She told the umbrella body of lawyers that in consonance with her promise to fix the rot in the bench, she said that a number of petitions alleging malfeasance against judges had been investigated with a few judges kicked out of the bench over professional misconducts, a couple warned seriously while others hurriedly bowed out of the bench before the NJC hammers would descend on them.

‘’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 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’’, she stated.

Available records, indeed, indicated that there were no less than 60 petitions undergoing considerations and awaiting responses of the judicial officials, while fresh ones had begun piling in from time to time.

Besides, records also confirmed that Justice Mukhtar-led National Judicial Council (NJC) had, in the last one year, kicked out a number of erring judges from the bench including a Federal high court judge, Justice Charles Archibong; a Plateau high court judge, Justice T.D. Naron, while Justice Abubakar Talba of an Abuja high court was placed on one year suspension without pay over a ridiculous judgment he gave in the Police Pension case of EFCC vs Mr. John Yusuf and others.

Besides, NJC presided over by the CJN had also indicted former Chief Judge of Abuja high court, Justice Lawal Gummi and would have sacked him but for the fact that he had voluntarily retired from the bench while it issued serious warnings against two Federal high court judges, Justice Okechukwu Okeke, now retired, and Justice M. A. Onyetenu over misconducts including abuse of exparte order.

It is also on record that Justice Mukhtar, in a move that was unprecedented, had gone after the judiciary support staff who were established to have facilitated leakage of yet to be delivered judgment of the Supreme Court and sacked them.

Specifically, she chaired the meeting of the Federal Judicial Service Commission (FJSC) held on June 2, 2013 to dismiss five Supreme Court workers and one staff of the Abuja Court of Appeal for leaking the judgement in the case of Senator Alphonsus Igbeke Vs Lady Margery Okadigbo before it was delivered on May 31, 2013.

The commission presided over by her had also requested the Attorney General of the Federation to further investigate and possibly prosecute Igbeke and one Collins Okechukwu for allegedly aiding and abetting the leakage.

Sunday Mirror gathered that there had been many cases of leaked judgements in the apex court and even in the lower courts in the past, but most times when such became public knowledge, the judiciary leadership would deny the obvious and cover it up. The leaked judgment on Ibori ex-convict saga is a good example.

The Igbeke case, however, is one of the rare cases where suspects were investigated with culprits punished to discourage other staff in the judiciary with like minds Sunday Mirror can also authoritatively report that it is a notorious fact that this category of workers had played a big role in the rot which had taken over the judiciary in the past years.

Certain reports of past probe panels had linked them to leakages of judgements written by judges which were yet to be delivered, disappearance of vital documents from court files and playing a go-between role between litigants and judges in the sale of judgement.

Some of them simply provide information to litigants on how some judges could be approached to compromise his or her judgement which they do for a fee at the expense of the judiciary integrity and image.

Also on May 17, 2013, in Abuja, the CJN disclosed that beside outcome of petitions filed against judges, the NJC would henceforth use its performance evaluation reports to weed out incompetent and indolent judges out of the bench. She said it was highly absurd to observe that some judges could not even deliver up to two judgements in a quarter.

Justice Mukhtar also revealed that she had earlier directed judges wishing to travel abroad to seek for her permission through his or her head of court. Justice Mukhtar said that she didn’t know how bad the situation was until she directed all judges to seek for CJN’s permission through their heads of courts before travelling abroad.

‘’The Nigerian Bar Association has also been complaining about the attitudes of judges to work these days. Many will leave their work and travel for days abroad.

This is why I insisted they must obtain approval before travelling abroad. “Until this directive, I never thought things were all that bad, because some of the judges will be seeking for permission to travel abroad while the courts are in session, despite the six weeks holiday they are entitled to in a year’’.

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

Under the civil service rule, any worker who is rated poor or unproductive on performance evaluation exercise can be asked to give way for good hands to take his or her place. The performance evaluation, according to her, is to put judges on their toes and make them take their jobs more seriously.

She said she is also working with chief judges of states’ high courts, the Abuja High Court, the Federal High Court and presiding justices of the various divisions of the Court of Appeal to put in place an efficient system that will eliminate delays in criminal trials.

Although stakeholders agreed that it was too early to assess the CJN’s perormance, they nonetheless rated her very high in terms of resolution to sanitize the judiciary.

They however added that while she had not put anybody in doubt that it was no longer business as usual, they said they still expected her impacts in certain areas which they were yet to see. According to a scholar cum legal practitioner, Dr Olatawura, he said the CJN is fighting hard to exterminate corruption in the system, he said she might not be able to go very far because the essential framework was not yet in place to tackle it.

In fact, he said the problem with the Nigerian judiciary had more to do with mediocrity than corruption. He lamented that the judgments being churned out by judges these days are far below expectations and that the only way out is to review the mode of appointment into the bench and replace incompetent judges.

A prominent member of the inner bar, Chief Emeka Ngige (SAN) who though agreed with Olatawura’s suggestion however applauded the CJN for doing so much within a short while. In fact, Ngige (SAN) said Justice Mukhtar was acting out his prophecy.

Hear him: “when Marian Aloma Mukthar was sworn in as Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) in July 15th last year, I predicted that it will not be business as usual for the nation’s judiciary. I also predicted that we are going to witness the breath of fresh air in our judiciary. I am happy that the CJN has not disappointed most observers. She has lived up to expectations.

“The National Judicial Council under her watch has taken issues of judicial misconduct very seriously. The impunity and corruption which had bedeviled our judiciary is now being addressed aggressively. The fear of NJC is now the beginning of wisdom among judges.

“However the issue of lawyers writing frivolous petitions to NJC needs to be addressed. Some lawyers now threaten judges with frivolous petitions. I believe that where a petition is found to be frivolous, NJC should recommend disciplinary actions against the offending lawyer to the Body of Benchers’ Disciplinary Committee or in case of a non-lawyer, to the appropriate security agencies.

“The only area I want to express my disappointment with the CJN is non resolution of the Salami saga. Before she became CJN, the NJC under Dahiru Musdapher had accepted the recommendation of a sub-committee headed by the present CJN that Justice Salami should be recalled from suspension.

The Presidency refused to act on the recommendation. What was expected of the NJC in the circumstance was to restore Justice Salami to office without waiting for any presidential consent since NJC has the constitutional power to suspend and recall any judicial officer from suspension. I still believe that CJN can do something to remedy the injustice visited on Justice Salami before he retires. “The CJN has more than a year to bow out.

There are still many areas that need urgent attention in the judiciary. They are many but the chief among them include delay in the hearing of cases, the procedure for appointment of judges, appointment of deserving SANs to Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court, review of the Judges Code of Conduct, the 180 days provision in the constitution for election matters and the fresh attempt by the Senate to include 180 days for pre-election matters and dealing with legal practitioners who write frivolous petitions against judges. I wish the CJN more success in her efforts to sanitize the Judiciary,” Ngige (SAN) added.

Another respected member of the inner bar, Chief Mike Ahamba (SAN) told Sunday Mirror that the CJN had not done poorly. His words: “ she had taken some definite steps pointing in the right direction. But the time is short to evaluate the success or failure of her programme of reforms. “I believe that everybody in the legal profession appreciates the fact that she has convinced everybody that she means well”.

Another stakeholders who spoke with Sunday Mirror under condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the information he volunteered also appauded Mukhtar’s performance even as he disclosed that before Justice Mukhtar got to the office, some of the rogue judges desecrating the system were known to the judiciary leadership but that there was nothing anybody could do about them.

“Let me tell you that some of these judges ought to have been consumed long time before now but that each time they were dragged before the National Judicial Council (NJC), the petitions against them would not be referred for probe by the judiciary leadership because of interventions from powerful emirs, first class traditional rulers and strong politicians in the country.

“When Mukhtar came, they thought it was business as usual but they were disappointed as the CJN rebuffed such interventions. I can tell you that some of the affected judges, on their own proceeded on surprising voluntary retirement even when they still have more years and chances of getting elevated to higher bench.

“Tell me, how many times have you heard that a judge, on his own, proceeded on voluntary retirement? They don’t, even, when they are sick. In fact, they prefer to tamper with their record so that they can stay longer in office.

But today, if you have skeleton in your cupboard and you do not sack yourself, this new CJN will sack you with ignominy. And all judges now know that the era of “George Orwell’s Animal Farm” kind of treatment for judicial officers is over. All judges are now equal notwithstanding whom your backers are.

Although the CJN still has more than a year in office, time will tell if her over all performance at the completion of her tenure would be worthwhile enough to really change the public perception about the Nigerian judiciary.

————————————————————————————————————————-
Posted in Nigerian Newspapers. A DisNaija.Com network.

Source: National Mirror Newspaper

DisNaija.Com publishes regular posts on Nigeria News, Nigerian Newspapers, Online Nigeria Gist.

Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Nigerian Newspapers

Follow @Dis_Naija

Your Opinion Counts. Be sure To Leave A Comment, If You Have Any.

Please Like, Share or Tweet. Your Support Is Appreciated.