Following the face-off between the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Aloysius Iyorgehr Katsina-Alu and President, Court of Appeal, Justice Ayo Isa Salami, President, Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Joseph Daudu, yesterday expressed the fear that the allegation of corruption rocking the judiciary might lead to anarchy if unchecked.
The NBA president, who spoke during the inauguration of a committee to look into the graft allegations levelled against Katsina-Alu and Salami added that the association had reached an unenviable point in the history of the legal profession in Nigeria where it did not wish to be.
Chief Thompson Okpoko (SAN) is the committee's chairman while the Secretary is Mr. Ebenezer Obeya. Other members are Bamidele Aiku, (SAN), Mr. Idowu Sofola (SAN), Dr. S.S. Ameh, SAN, Mr. O.C.J. Okocha (SAN), Mr. E.J.J. Toro (SAN), Chief Assam. Assam, Professor G. O. Olawoyin (SAN), Mr. Marcus Yarkasuwa Saleh, (SAN), Mr. Obi Ulasi, (SAN), Mrs. Stella Ugboma and Alhaji M.U. Ibrahim.
The committee's terms of reference include:
• CJN/PCA faceoff;
• probing debilitating corruption eating into and corroding the entire judicial system; and
• identifying legal practitioners who promote corruption in a variety of ways in the system.
Meanwhile, the NBA has decried the quality of decisions emanating from judges in the country even as it renewed its case for the appointment of judges for superior courts in the country to be made from the academia and the Bench.
Speaking at the Valedictory Court session in honour of Justice Philip Nnaemeka-Agu at the Supreme Court Complex in Abuja, Daudu noted that the late Justice of the Supreme Court came to Bench from the Bar and in doing so performed with distinction in every court he worked, up to the apex court.
According to the NBA president, "this shows that there is merit in the case being made for a return to the practice whereby the Supreme Court and other appellate courts were populated by legal practitioners appointed from the Bar. In England it is not a coincidence that the quality of UK justice is among the best because their High Court Judges are appointed exclusively from the rank of the Queen's Counsel.
"Appointments to the superior appellate courts ought not to be seen as a promotion for judges or justices in the surbordinate courts. Indeed these courts ought to comprise the best materials from the Bar, Bench and Academia. This will bring rich blend to the justice table that will be served to Nigerians and the world," Daudu added.
The NBA president, who was represented at the panel's inauguration by the 2nd Vice President of the NBA, Mr. Justy Osas Erhabor, said the Judiciary found itself in the crisis as a result of its refusal or omission to maintain those strict standards usually required by the legal profession.
According to him, "the Bar and the Bench usually require at entry points an oath being subscribed to, pledging that the person concerned 'will not allow his personal interest to influence his official conduct or official decisions' and most importantly 'to do right to all manner of people, according to law, without fear or favour, affection or ill-will. There are other constituents of the judicial oath but what is of importance is the state of mind of every person in the legal profession. It must be fair, honest and above all truthful.
"These are the attributes that the public associates us with, and that is why they entrust their disputes into our hands for adjudication and resolution. This trust is a sacred one endorsed by the Almighty. Consequently, when this responsibility and trust are breached on account of unfathomable reasons, the very foundation of the society is breached and the consequence is anarchy."
The NBA told the committee members: "We may not have reached the stage of anarchy and confusion yet but events at hand point inexorably to that direction. There is however fire on the mountain and part of your responsibility is to put out the fire. You are also to find out the cause of the fire and provide counsel as to avoid future conflagration.
"This brings us to the main question. What is the fire presently threatening to burn our institution down? The Judiciary nay legal profession has always been considered as the last bastion of the people. The stuff with which the men and women who man the judiciary are made up of must be impervious to bribery and other forms of corruption. Lawyers who appear before all our courts must resist the temptation to corrupt the bench."
Daudu observed that "the exposure of our courts to political and election cases has introduced a new dimension into our justice system," adding that "stakeholders in the judiciary should be careful with the unscrupulous politician who will go to any extent to secure his seat or political office."
He disclosed that "politicians now make it part of their political strategy to cultivate judicial officers and senior counsel on a long-term basis so as to smoothen the acquisition of political power." "What this translates to is a dislocation of the system when several politicians are out to play the same game. I have tried to give a semblance of the problem in the hope that this high powered committee of wise, tried and tested men of the legal profession will relate the issues analysed above to their terms of reference and provide urgent solutions thereto," Daudu added.
Also, Kastina-Alu poured encomiums on the late Justice Nnaemeka-Agu, describing him as one who had not only excelled in his chosen career but also in the development of the nation and mankind.
The CJN noted: "He is one man whose name has become a recurring decimal in the Nigerian judiciary as a result of his robust scholarly disposition and erudition.
"To me there is no better way a man could live his life. As Samuel Johnson said "it matters not how a man dies but how he lives his life. Indeed this is a life well lived and well accounted for. Adieu Hon. Justice Nnaemeka-Agu the lion in the temple of justice whose roars will keep reverberating in the court rooms in Nigeria and beyond."
Source: NBA Inaugurates Panel On CJN, Salami (http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=39819:nba-inaugurates-panel-on-cjn-salami&catid=1:national&Itemid=559)