JUDICIARY VOX POP

Penultimate week, the Federal High Court marked the commencement of its 2019/20 Legal Year with a court session. Against the backdrop of clog, lacunas and glaring challenges plaguing the nation’s judiciary, legal practitioners in this interview with KEHINDE OSASONA, once again set an agenda for the court.

Lack of financial autonomy hampering the independence of the judiciary – Festus Onifade

I think what is most fundamental here is the issue of congestion of court. There is this notion that justice delayed is justice denied. Today, our courts are terribly congested and until the issue is properly dealt with, we are going no-where in terms of access to justice and dispensation of justice in the country.

Imagine a litigant who approaches the court, but one month, six months, one year, his case is yet to be mentioned. If you ask me, I will say invariably justice is being denied him. So, I am more particular about the efficiency of our court and the rate at which we dispense with cases.

Going forward, I think one of the things that the government can do is to provide necessary infrastructure for the judges. The acting CJN should as a matter of agency ensure that these issues are properly looked at.

What I mean is adequate infrastructures, requisite materials and of course make working tools more accessible. By so doing, all these backlog of cases can be properly dealt with and the court will move forward in term of number of cases they have to deal with.

Again, you could see that every practitioner in the legal profession is worried that in a way, there is this muzzling of other arms, not only the judiciary by the executive arm. Whereas the constitution is clear about Sections 4,5 and 6 which spell out roles of each arm of government.

This predominance of the executive has in a way boxed the judiciary to a corner. In a way the judiciary still relies on the executive for its allowances and disbursement. What this means is that there is no independence yet and it is hampering the independence of the judiciary and in a whole lot, it is affecting how the judiciary acts.

I think at this juncture, all practitioners should prop up an advocacy to ensure judicial independence.

Bar and bench should synergize to enhance justice dispensation- Emmanuel Ukaegbu

My agenda for the court as they usher in new legal year is that the court should sit up to its responsibility.

First and foremost, the judges should start coming to court on time for those of them who err in this regard. They should also strive to be in control of their courts by making sure that there is no undue delay of legal process.

The bench should also synergize with the bar to see that cases that are brought before the court are dispensed with expeditiously without further delay. Again, it does not matter who is involved, our judges should make sure that justice is dispensed based on the position of the law, such that the common man who seems to have lost confidence will now begin to see the judiciary as his last hope.

The bar on its part should also strive to stand up for the poor masses by taking up cases pro-bono and make sure that every citizen of this country gets justice.

More importantly, our criminal justice system must be looked into; especially when it comes to do with bail of an accused person.

Our judges must ensure that parties are given fair hearing – Ngele Ikenna

The work of the judiciary as an institution cannot be overemphasized in that it is the only body that has the right of adjudication, just as the society sees it as the last hope of common man.

As we usher in new legal year, I crave that our judges dispose of higher number of cases before them, not only that but by also making sure that all parties in cases are given fair hearing.

I must also say here that the state of our judiciary today is such that we are not fully independent and that is why you still have a lot of things going on today. If they can do away with the overriding powers of the executive, then it would go a long way.

Judiciary must restore the hope of the common man – Peter Aboh

The truth is that the judiciary has to consider this new development as a wake-up call in setting the agenda right.

For the common man on the street, they have little respect for the judiciary especially when you consider recent judgments coming from the judiciary. I am talking about judgments from both the election petition tribunal and the regular court.

But if the judiciary continues in this way, how would it redeem its image? I mean, how would the hope of a common man be restored? The thing is: if the judiciary continues this way, we are headed for a doom and very terrible disaster in this country.

So, my point is: the judiciary must wake up and do the right thing; interpret the law in such a way that the common man on the street would see it as indeed the hope of the common man.

Lastly, there is the need for the judiciary institution to be autonomous in the real sense of it. Also, their welfare package is a thing of concern which government must look into.

Judiciary must maintain probity, shun corruption and uphold the law – Chukwudi Charles

Well, sometimes you begin to wonder if Nigerian judiciary is heading towards the right direction viz a vis fate of common man on the judiciary and the quality of judgment being given lately.

Looking at the outcome of the presidential election petition, the certificate issue and what have you, I think we have overgrown the era of looking at the law and interpreting it the way it is. We should rather try as much as we can to bring out quality judgment.

Now, I must be very simple in my submission here: For the judiciary to actually get things done, we must maintain probity, shun all forms of judicial corruption and uphold the law accordingly.

And, of course, for that to happen, we must look at the welfare of lawyers when compared with earnings for instance of other professionals, it would help stem any act of corruption. So, in all, we need general overhaul in the judiciary.

Judgments should be expeditiously delivered within the ambit of the law – Aminu Sadauki

First of all, I think the agenda for the new legal year should not be different from what we had in the past viz a vis speedy dispensation of justice.

Whether civil or criminal trial, there should be expeditious trial, timely and within the ambit of the law. Again, I have always been an advocate of financial autonomy for the judiciary because once you have to rely on a branch of government for funding, we all know there will be a problem because he who pays the pipers dictates the tunes.

I mean, once we are financially independent, we would not have to be cap in hands, begging and I think as such, justice would be better served.

I think what our judges need is self-retrospection – Levis Abonyi

The best agenda to set, in my own view, concerns the independence of the judiciary. Truth is: if the judiciary is not independent, you can’t get anything good from it. Sometimes, you find out that judges are even afraid to deliver justice, especially politically exposed matters and all that. That has been the bane.

I was listening to my Lord, the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Ibrahim Tanko and he was very emphatic that look this time around, judges are going to be serious minded this time, saying that the executive should be ready to obey courts order. But I think more than anything else, the judiciary needs self-retrospection regardless of whose ox is gored. But if as judges what interest the executive is what interest you, then we are doomed.

Let me however say that with needed encouragement, as we usher in this new legal year, our judges would go all out to uphold the constitution they swore to.

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