Amid grouchy public criticisms of the Nigerian judiciary for perceivable corrupt indulgences, delays in the administration of justice and collusion with corrupt lawyers to frustrate, scuttle or pervert the course of justice – all of which contribute to the erosion of public confidence in the country’s judicial system; the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Mahmud Mohammed, has blamed the perceivable poor performance of the Nigerian Bench on underfunding and the lack of judicial independence. He spoke up late November (last month) at the flagging off of the 2015 All Nigeria Judges’ Conference in Abuja, the nation’s capital. President Muhammadu Buhari had on that occasion tongue-lashed the judiciary on ceaseless allegations of corruption and delays in justice delivery, which he linked to “… a combination of endless adjournments, incessant interlocutory applications and overwhelming caseloads… ”.
The President’s grotesque painting of the judiciary, however, met with what rightly passed for a demystification of the root of the judicial stench by the CJN. Justice Mohammed stated, for instance, that despite express constitutional provisions for the institutional and fiscal autonomy of the judiciary, it still labours with difficulties to accessing funds allocated to it from the executive arm of government. “It is this independence that gives credibility to the scales of justice and allows our citizens to (be) rest assured that justice is, indeed, not for sale”, the CJN cried.
Quite recently, Gombe State Chairman of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Mr. Haruna Saleh, also took the state’s judiciary to the cleaners at an event marking the 2015/2016 legal year of the Gombe State judiciary. Said Saleh: “… the NBA observed that the judiciary has been neglected in terms of structures and facilities; when we critically look at the dilapidated court rooms – some courts are rented houses and shops – the limited existing structures that are made to be court rooms are now something else that calls for a reasonable and immediate attention. This clearly reveals how judiciary is ranked in the state…no enough infrastructure and facilities in managing some of the court rooms; books and stationeries, working materials are not adequately provided, this area is only left for the court’s staff in the registry to find their way out by all means. This undoubtedly encourages corruption as they may end up using either their personal money or that of litigants or that of their counsel”. He said “as (the nation’s) population is increasing, litigations are multiplying dayby- day, while funds and facilities, staff welfare are dwindling. This has created an avenue where seeds of fraud and corruption may be sown… if solution is not timely provided by the government”. We think these depositions by two eminent persons representing the Bench and the Bar, respectively, are deserving of special attention of the executive arm of government especially, the same way President Buhari lamented the menace of persisting corruption in the judiciary. Indeed, it is quite strange that whereas the country’s Constitution (as altered) copiously made provisions for the institutional and fiscal independence of the judiciary, the politics and intrigues of particularly the executive arm of government, which seeks to hold down and fiscally arm-twist the judiciary at the slightest opportunity; and force it to pander to its (executive’s) whims and caprices, have, perhaps more than any other stumbling block, denied the judiciary its constitutional freedom. The executive arm of government may well be accused of shedding crocodile tears in respect of the general rot in the nation’s judiciary, having sown a significant portion of the judicial wind that has now yielded whirlwind.
The frustrating situation had led to the January 2014 judgement of Justice Adeniyi Ademola of the Federal High Court, Abuja, in which the judge affirmed the financial autonomy of the judiciary as stipulated by the Constitution; and the abolition of piecemeal funding of states’ judiciary by state governments, following litigations initiated by the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN). While not holding brief for the judiciary for allowing itself to be the scorn of other arms of government, despite its awesome powers, we loathe the executive’s penchant for clubbing the judiciary into submission through fund starvation. Those who seek equity should approach it with clean hands. In truth, it appears glaring, the fact that other arms of government – the executive and legislature – have not been fair enough to or honest with the judiciary. The contrary should be the case if they are truly desirous of having a judicial arm of government that is corruption-free and commands public confidence to flourish and grow.
