Pruning the powers of the CJN

The judiciary is the third arm of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) is the head of the judiciary. Apart from the CJN sitting as the No. 1 chief justice in the Supreme Court, the CJN also perform other administrative duties as provided by the relevant pieces of Legislation including the Constitution of Nigeria. The role of the judiciary is very vital in our nation building and democratic experience, and the need for the persons appointed as judicial officers to live above board and be persons of high integrity, cannot be over emphasised. It is against this background that I will evaluate some of the powers of the CJN as provided in out extant Laws.

Section 230 (1) (a) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria provides for the office of the CJN and section 231 (1) provides that the appointment of a person to the office of the CJN shall be made by the President on the recommendation of the NJC subject to the confirmation of such appointment by the Senate. It is only the NJC that is constitutionally empowered to recommend to Mr. President who will be the CJN. What then, are the composition and the powers of the NJC?

Section 20, Part 1 of the Third schedule to the 1999 Constitution as amended, provides:

the Chief Justice of Nigeria who shall be the Chairman;
the next most senior Justice of the Supreme Court who shall be the Deputy Chairman;
the President of the Court of Appeal;
five retired justices selected by the Chief Justice of Nigeria from the Supreme Court or Court of Appeal;
the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court;
five Chief Judges of States to be appointed by the Chief Justice of Nigeria from among the Chief Judges of the States and of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja in rotation to serve for two years;
one Grand Kadi to be appointed by the Chief Justice of Nigeria from among Grand Kadis of the Sharia Court of Appeal to serve in rotation for two years;
one president of the Customary Court of Appeal to be appointed by the Chief Justice of Nigeria from among the presidents of the customary courts of Appeal to serve in rotation for two years;
five members of the Nigeria Bar Association who have been qualified to practice for a period of not less than fifteen years, at least one of whom shall be a senior Advocate of Nigeria, appointed by the Chief Justice of Nigeria on the recommendation of the National Executive Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association to serve for two years and subject to re-appointment:

Provided that the five members shall sit in the Council only for the purposes of considering the names of persons for appointment to the superior courts of record; and

Arising from the foregoing, and what we have witnessed in recent months in the crises between the CJN and the President of the Court of Appeal (PCA), majority of the NJC’s membership having being hand-picked by the CJN, are bound to be loyal to him. The nation has witnessed the show of shame, where the NJC, rather than be bold and stand by the truth has been speaking from both sides of the mouth in dealing with its present crises. In my view, the weak position of the JNC is traceable to the wide powers of the CJN in appointing members of the NJC. The NJC as presently constituted, the CJN is more-or-less synonymous wit the NJC and its powers are too wide and could be subject to abuse if a corrupt-minded person assumes office as a CJN.

I therefore recommend a bill to amend the composition and powers of the NJC whereby the chairman of the NJC will be a retired Chief Justice of the Supreme Court or the Court of Appeal. Also, to expunge the proviso that the five members from NBA will only be members of the NJC only for the purpose of considering the names of persons for appointment to the superior courts. And finally, to amend the NJC’s body so that the power of the chairman of the body to appoint other members will be whittled-down.

Another area of the CJN’s powers that need pruning is the appointment to the rank of the Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN). Information is rife among lawyers that to be a SAN you have to know the CJN who appoints majority of the members of the Legal Practitioners’ Privileges Committee (LPPC) that confer the rank of SAN.

Subject to subsection (2) of this section, the Legal Practitioners’ Privileges Committee established under subsection (3) of this section may by instrument confer on a legal practitioner the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria.
There shall be a committee to be called the Legal Practitioners’ Privileges Committee which shall consist of the following-

It is clear from the above provisions of section 5 of the LPA that it is the statutory responsibility of the CJN to appoint majority members of the LPPC. It goes without saying that in the event we have a person who is corrupt and power-drunk as a CJN, the persons conferred as SAN will be of questionable characters. It is not surprising therefore that among the 30-would-be SANs about to be sworn-in is one Barrister Mahmud who has been indicted in the current corruption scandal rocking the judiciary. It is also not surprising that the CJN, Justice Katsina-Alu has unilaterally shifted backward the swearing-in of new SANs from 19 th September 2011 to the 26 th of August 2011 even when such an adjustment falls within the period when the NBA will be having its Annual General Conference (AGC) and all courts are on vacation. In my opinion, the powers of the CJN in the LPPC are too wide and could be subject to abuse as is currently being experienced.

I recommend an amendment whereby section 5 of the LPA will be expunged from the Act and the rank of the SAN abolished. In the alternative, pending the abolition of the rank of SAN, the composition of the LPPC be amended to reduce the powers of the CJN in its composition.

The powers of the CJN also require adjustment at the National Judicial Institute (NJI). CAP.55 LFN 2004 provides for the establishment of the NJI and makes the CJN as the chairman of the governing body of the Institute. It is also within the powers of the CJN to appoint the Administrator of the Institute and in exercise of that powers, the former CJN, Hon. Justice Idris Kutigi appointed retired Justice Umaru Eri as the Administrator of the NJI. After Eri was appointed, Justice Kutigi discovered that he was involved in several corruptions involving the institute which made him to set up Justice Anthony I. Iguh committee in December 2009 to investigate the corruption allegation. Before the Justice Anthony I. Iguh committee completed its investigation Justice Kutigi retired and since then nothing has been heard of the outcome of that committee.

When the present CJN, Justice Kastina-Alu came on board, he did not only reinstate Justice Eri, he actively participated in the corrupt activities of Justice Eri in the institute. According to The News Magazine of 28 th March 2011, the CJN, Katsina-Alu through his company Derbydoo Nigeria Limited, one of the companies allegedly used to rip off the NJI has one of its directors, one Katsina-Alu Timothy, alleged to be the son of the CJN. The magazine further revealed, that the insistence by Dr. Uriah Angulu, the chairman of Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) to probe the corruption allegation involving the CJN and Justice Eri, led to the sack of the ICPC chairman.

I therefore recommend also that, the law setting-up the NJI be amended to water-down the powers of the CJN in that institute.

Generally, looking at the powers of the CJN from the foregoing, which are not exhaustive in this write-up, it is a difficult task for one man to exercise the administrative powers of the CJN and still function effectively as a sitting judge in the open court, if the powers are not pruned down. The powers are not just enormous but they are subject to abuse if the wrong person is appointed as the CJN as we have seen in the judiciary.

I urge all relevant stakeholders in the judiciary to implement the above recommendations for the interest, integrity and sanctity of the judiciary and to avoid any future re-occurrence of the present mess.