LANRE ADEWOLE and YEJIDE GBENGA-OGUNDARE chronicle events and developments since Justice Olukayode Ariwoola took charge of Nigeria’s Judiciary.
Today marks the 128th day of Justice Olukayode Tajudeen Ariwoola’s ascension to the number one seat of the nation’s judiciary as the Chief Justice of Nigeria, first in acting capacity for 107 days, before his journey in substantive capacity, began just 21 days back.
For someone who got into office in an unusual circumstance, national and international attention is bound to be on him and after four months and five days since replacing his immediate predecessor-in-office who had to quit unceremoniously, expectations are peaking on the reform he promised, to ensure the system does not witness again, the near-collapse, before his elevation.
When The Jury reached out to senior lawyers for their assessment of the system since the Ariwoola era began, it is more of praises than knocks.
While the incumbent is yet to announce a system-wide reform, he has spoken to the ongoing reform in the Supreme Court, during his appearance before the senate committee on Judiciary. He also had an informal chat with The Jury.
While undergoing senate screening on September 21, the CJN disclosed that he had set up four committees to oversee the administration of the Supreme Court.
‘’Barely five days I was sworn in acting capacity, I had a meeting with my brother Justices and decided to set up four committees. The committees are Finance and Account, Welfare of Justices and staff, Litigation and Health and fourthly, Administration and Library. The committees are made up of three Justices each.
‘’A tree does not make a forest. The committees commenced duties before we proceeded on vacation in July. The purpose of involving all the Justices in administrative affairs of the Supreme Court is to prevent the ugly things that transpired recently and transparency purposes.” Justice Ariwoola said.
During an informal chat with The Jury in his Abuja office, he disclosed that the four most senior Justices of the court, were picked by him, to lead the said committees.
They are Justices Musa Dattijo-Muhammad, who is also the vice chairman of the National Judicial Council, Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, who is next to Dattijo, Chima Centus Nweze and Amina Augie.
In order to allow for unhindered access to information and documents in the course of carrying out their assignment, Justice Ariwoola said he deliberately excused his participation in any of the committees. They are to make findings and recommendations known to him, for implementation, and he gave no timeline for the conclusion of their missions, which suggests that the committees may last his tenure, which is expected to come to an end on August 22, 2024.
Is collegiate leadership legal?
The new helmsman obviously started his reform activities at the Supreme Court because it was the crisis within the apex court, that triggered the storm the entire system, is trying to ride with him as the driver. Also leaning towards a collegiate leadership structure, according to him, was to erase the usual suspicion that an average CJN is cornering money meant for his colleagues’ welfare, because all the 12 Justices are now directly involved in the administration of the apex court.
But Ahuraka Yusuf Isah, Senior Special Assistant on Media to Ariwoola’s predecessor-in-office and two other past Chief Justices, Aloma Mukhtar and Mahmud, says the Ariwoola leadership model, may collapse soon, because it has no roots in legality.
He said, “This arrangement (collegiate administration of the apex court) is most likely to collapse with time because neither the 1999 Constitution (as amended) nor Supreme Court Act (Cap S15 LFN 2004) makes provision for the involvement of the Justices other than the CJN in administration of the Supreme Court.
“Section 6 (2) of the Act states that, ’the Chief Registrar and other officers appointed under subsection (1) of this section shall exercise such powers and perform such duties as may be conferred or imposed upon them by any Act or rules of court, and subject thereto, by any direction of the Chief Justice of Nigeria’’.
He however, alluded to the noticeable jump in judiciary allocation for next year, pointing out that the last time the system had such a huge allocation was during the leadership of Justice Muhammadu Uwais as CJN. He was in office between 1995 and 2006.
Suggesting Justice Ariwoola would have enough to handle the financial challenges of the Judiciary, Isah, a lawyer and journalist noted, “Incidentally, a whopping sum of N150 billion was allocated in the 2023 budget estimate for the judiciary currently being processed by the National Assembly for appropriation. Such amount of fund was last appropriated for the Judiciary under Justice Muhammadu Uwais as CJN.”
Applause from lawyers
Senior lawyers have however been applauding the results from the in-house reform embarked on by the CJN. They are also pointing to the more he can do.
Chairman of the public advocacy arm of the Nigerian Bar Association, the Section on Public Interest and Development Law (NBA-SPIDEL), Dr. Monday Ubani told The Jury that the new helmsman had started well.
“The new CJN, Hon Justice Olukayode Ariwoola has actually started on a firm and solid note”, he notes, adding, “he knows the pitfalls of the previous CJNs and have learnt enough lessons not to fall into the same error as they did.”
He further stated that, “Hon Justice Ariwoola appears like man that knows his onions and from the overall view of his 100 days in office, his tenure will be very impactful.
“He has learnt the habit of carrying all the Justices of the Supreme Court along. His initial steps so far indicate that the Supreme Court and by extension the judiciary, will experience positive reforms that will help the general administration of justice in the country.”
Ubani, however, wanted the Ariwoola administration to focus on certain areas, when rolling out its comprehensive reform agenda.
He said, “It is important I point out that his reforms will be more impactful if adequate number of Justices are appointed to the Supreme Court. The number so far is inadequate, to reduce the burden on the other few Justices of the Court.
“Furthermore, a long term arrangement of reducing the type of cases that should come to the Supreme Court is overdue. I suggest that we should allow certain cases to end at the Court of Appeal as was done with Labour matters. It is another sure way of decongesting the Supreme Court.
“We can also establish Regional Supreme Courts in Nigeria as a way to improve our administration of justice generally in the country” Ubani counselled.
Constitutional lawyer, Dr. Kayode Ajulo believes the new CJN is already pulling his weight in the few months he has been in the saddle.
He said to The Jury, “In the last 100 days in office, the CJN has demonstrated tireless devotion to duty, pro-activeness, and pragmatism. Judiciary don’t take to rooftop advocacy and won’t want to market their achievement but there are many innovations introduced by the new CJN to ensure seamless justice delivery at the Apex Court.
“I won’t want to violate the ethics in listing such innovations but it is a remarkable feat to which the justices and the stakeholders are not oblivious of.
“No one can deny the trust and unity in the judiciary in the sense that, previous complaints about poor welfare management by justices that led to a division and trouble in the judiciary, have since ended upon his ascension as CJN.
“Above all, a simple interrogation of the CJN’s pronouncements, opinions and reasonings will show that an erudite and incorruptible justice has ascended the most revered position of the Judiciary” Ajulo concluded.
A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Chief Yomi Alliyu, called attention to the somewhat quiet revolution being undertaken by Justice Ariwoola beyond the apex court.
According to him, “Justice Ariwoola is a round peg in a round hole, in that he combines experiences at both the private Bar and public Bar. He is a jurist of international reputation in that his decisions are applied in other African countries as persuasive authorities. The patronisers of the Court he heads are from both the public and private Bars where he was a doyen, hence it is a channel he had traversed for over four decades.
“He has changed the landscape of SANship by ensuring that it is no more a ceremonial award like traditional chieftaincy titles as hitherto done with awards to academias who never stepped court rooms. It is now one slot to that group as opposed to up to 17 hitherto awarded.
“Again Justices of the appellate courts had, many years, abhorred what Justice Ayo Salami (former President of the Court of Appeal) tagged “mixed grill”, that is, mixing of bad and good grounds of appeal together. Later the appellate courts departed from aborting an appeal due to bad ground if there is a single good ground, thus allowing a leprous finger to stir pot of milk for human consumption! “However, this month, the Supreme Court held that such milk should be placed where it belongs; trash bin! This is a welcome development that will reduce the burden of appeals on not only the Supreme Court but also the Court of Appeal!
“Just think of numerous developments that will happen at the effluxion of his Lordship’s tenure. More to come, surely” he said hopefully.
Radical reforms?
During the informal chat with The Jury, Justice Ariwoola had hinted of an imminent system-wide reform package, which he said was in the works. The Jury also recently learnt that the package was as good as ready, though the release date could not be verified.
There are reports that the release of the system-wide reform, could coincide with the swearing in of new Senior Advocates of Nigeria, an event scheduled for November 21.
A group within the NBA told The Jury an appointment would be sought to discuss far-reaching change proposal with the Judiciary leader, particularly the court decongestion model adopted by the Singaporean Judiciary in 2006. The leadership of the Judiciary in the Southeastern Asian country initiated a pilot scheme, which led to the appointment of “specialist judges” to the Bench, from the legal profession and academic.
The main goal of the scheme, was “to draw expertise to the subordinate courts, giving practitioners and academic judicial experience in the process.”
The group said it would try to impress it on the CJN to try the model and after the accumulated cases, especially at the appellate level have been disposed off, lawyers who do not want to stay can go back to their legal practice.
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A former national publicity secretary of NBA, Barrister Kunle Edun, has a list for Justice Ariwoola’s consideration.
He said, “Hon. Justice Oluwakayode Ariwoola is a firm jurist and I believe he will turn the fortunes of the Supreme Court around. I am happy that he has already taken some proactive steps as the Chairman of the National Judicial Council by initiating the process of filling up the vacancies at the Supreme Court. While I commend this effort, more still need to be done.
“The Supreme Court should not be an all-comers affair where every kind of appeal ends at the Supreme Court. My lord the CJN and the NJC will need to engage the National Assembly to substantially reduce the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court and limit it only to constitutional and other more serious cases. Matters that have to do with land, contracts, divorce, felonies apart from capital offences, matters that are under the residual list, should have no business being at the Supreme Court. All election petitions except Presidential election petitions should stop at the Court of Appeal.
“I happily look forward to my lord and the NJC engaging the appropriate bodies more to ensure that the welfare of Judicial officers are improved. Nigerian Judges (including of course Magistrates and other lower courts officers) are barely surviving on their lean salaries while politicians continue to help themselves to huge take home pay and live extravagantly.
“I also look forward to my noble lord intervening in decade-long appeals at the Supreme Court that are yet to be given hearing dates. I know that if these suggestions are considered, our over-burdened Justices of the Supreme Court will have less stress, live longer and be more productive.
“Another area that I will happily pray that the Honorable the CJN considers favourably is the appointment of private legal practitioners as Justice of the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court.
“Nigeria is blessed with very competent lawyers, some of whom have attained global prominence. Private legal practitioners will bring more vibrancy and varieties to the appellate bench. I know that the NBA is engaging my noble lord on this.”
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