• Senate confirms jurist as CJN
Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun yesterday promised reforms in the judiciary, saying tough times are ahead for judges found guilty of misconduct.
The reforms will include digitalisation of courts to smoothen administration of justice.
Lawyers who willfully aid untoward activities will also not be spared, she hinted.
Justice Kekere-Ekun spoke during her confirmation hearing at the Senate in Abuja.
The screening was done by the ‘Committee of the Whole’ and presided over by Senate President Godswill Akpabio as chairman.
During proceedings, Justice Kekere-Ekun, accompanied by other justices of the Supreme Court, took questions from senators on judicial matters.
She was found to have acquitted herself excellently and given a clean bill.
The Chief Justice was cleared after the Senate President put the question to senators whether she should be cleared or not.
The clearance paves the way for the commencement of her substantive status, having being sworn in by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on August 23 in an acting capacity to succeed Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, who retired the day earlier. She is the 23rd CJN.
Justice Kekere-Ekun said: “One of the things that I’m known for is integrity. I’m also known for being strict on discipline. Therefore, in order to ensure that the integrity of the judiciary is maintained, I will ensure that the Code of Conduct is fully complied with.
“I will ensure that there is zero tolerance for corruption. We have a committee of the National Judicial Council (NJC) that deals with performance evaluation and what that does is they assess judgments delivered, how judges are performing their functions and they have regular conferences.
“What I know is that we are even making moves now to tighten that performance evaluation process so that we can, when judges submit returns, for instance, it’s not about quality or quantity. It’s also about how they carry out their responsibilities. Are they punctual? Are they upright?
“Now in the NJC also, we are going to ensure that petitions are dealt with speedily. This is another way to let the public know that the integrity of the judiciary will be upheld in all circumstances.
“Another area for upholding the integrity of the judiciary is that there is a need also to insulate the judiciary from external influence.
“We are very grateful to His Excellency, the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, President Ahmed Bola Tinubu, and the National Assembly for passing the Bill that increased salaries of Judicial Officers.
“We are very grateful. But there is still a way to go because when we are talking about the integrity of the judiciary, it involves not only the take-home pay, it also involves infrastructure that we are working with.
“What is available? Is it conducive? And so on. These are all the things that have an effect on how the judiciary performs.
“In that regard, I will be pushing for still better welfare for judicial officers so that they too can perform at their optimum best.”
On the independence of the judiciary, Kekere-Ekun said: “I know that there are a lot of complaints at the moment about the process of appointment of judicial officers.
“This is an area that I am also going to take very, very seriously. The NJC also has a committee working on this to ensure that we make the screening process rigorous, transparent, and something that the citizenry will be satisfied with when judges are appointed.
“So, I’m going to make sure that this is done and with dispatch. We are looking at other jurisdictions to see how they carry out this process and how we can improve our own process in that regard.
“I know that once the citizens are comfortable with the manner in which judicial officers are appointed, it makes them have more confidence in the entire system.
“I will also be encouraging or supporting improvement in our laws. So, when it comes to the independence of the judiciary, all hands have to be on deck and I look forward to working with not only the National Assembly, but also the Executive to ensure that we have laws in place that enhance our independence.”
On the status of the Supreme as the Policy Court, she said: “I am very firmly of the view that there needs to be a limit to the cases that get to the Supreme Court. One of the reasons for this is that the Supreme Court is a policy court.
“It’s supposed to determine matters that have public policy significance, matters relating to the position of the Constitution, or matters where very rare legal issues have come up which require a pronouncement from the Supreme Court.
“As you know, the constitutional provision gives us (Supreme Court) 90 days to deliver a judgment from the date of final address. Those 90 days are spent dealing with matters of national significance as well as matters that have no significance on the national stage.
“I am of the view that many matters should terminate at the Court of Appeal, especially interlocutory appeals. There is also a situation where pre-election matters come all the way to the Supreme Court, whereas in National and State Assembly elections, the substantive elections terminate at the Court of Appeal.
“I think all pre-election matters should terminate at the Court of Appeal. So, many matters need to terminate at the Court of Appeal so that the Supreme Court can really live up to its designation as a policy court.”
She added: “I don’t believe enlarging the number of justices is the solution because the cases are so many. The backlog is tremendous. So even if we increase the number of justices, it may not change anything.
“I believe that sometimes, it gives the impression that there are more justices. So, we can even file more appeals. It’s more about the jurisdiction of the courts, which I think should be limited.”
She noted that the issue of conflicting judgments has become a matter of serious concern to the Supreme Court, saying there would be strict consequences for infractions during her tenure.
Kekere-Ekun said: “Now, we have what is known as the doctrine of stare decisis where a lower court is expected to follow the decision of a higher court. Where it is shown that a judicial officer deliberately fails to follow that doctrine, there will be strict consequences.
“Also, it is necessary because there are so many complaints about conflicting judgments that where these conflicting judgments occur, there will be a need to have committees that will look into them and see how the court can take a position.
“Only the proper procedure will take place. The court cannot sit on appeal over its own decisions. But where these matters arise, the court’s attention will be brought to them and they will be dealt with speedily.
“In the Supreme Court, for instance, where the court’s attention is drawn to any of such matters, those matters will be fixed expeditiously so that those issues can be resolved. We know that it is a serious problem.
“It is also an act of misconduct if a judicial officer fails to follow a laid down precedent. So, this is something that is going to be tackled seriously. In terms of the Code of Conduct, we will be dealing very decisively with matters where we find that this is happening.
“I also want to say that there are responsibilities for both the Bar and the Bench. So, in this kind of situation, you also have legal practitioners who are aware of the existing precedent and they come and mislead the court.
“So, as the head of the judiciary, I shall ensure that both the bar and the bench are up and doing in this regard so that the legal practitioners’ disciplinary committee can also deal with those legal practitioners who are found to have deliberately misled the court.
“Another reason why you have all these conflicting decisions is for what I would call forum shopping. So, this is another area that will be tackled very seriously and very decisively.”
On digitalization, the CJN said efforts will be geared at making the courts digital.
According to her, the court ought to have websites where the public can follow the activities.
She explained that the judgment of the court should be uploaded without wasting time.
She also spoke on the need to review the rules of the court to make the courts more efficient and deliver justice better.
She said the Supreme Court currently operates on the new set of rules it approved after the committee she chaired reviewed the rules.
She promised to extend this to other levels of courts.
Some of the senators who asked her questions during the screening include Senate Chief Whip Senator Mohammed Monguno, Senator Tony Nwoye, Senator Simeon Lalong, Senator Adams Oshiomhole and Senator Orji Uzor Kalu.
