The Nigerian Bar Association has expressed the need for its members to be more involved the policy and decision making of the National Judicial Council.
This call was made when the National President of the association, Abubakar Mahmoud, SAN, met with the International Donor Agencies in Abuja.
The SAN also noted that the judgement of the high court which declared the Constitution on which he was elected invalid, was being looked into in order to reach an amicable settlement with the aggrieved parties.
Going further, he assured that the association is doing all within its power to strengthen the nation’s judiciary and rid the judiciary off of the corruption stain placed on it.
“Our anti -corruption has been stepped up, many of us are aware with the events that unfolded toward the end of last year with the raid on the judges and all that followed that. We saw it as an opportunity to strengthen our own participation in the governance of judicial institution.
“We went strongly to advocate for greater goal for the bar association in the various institutions in the justice sector including the NJC and FJSC. Some of you may know that under the 1999 Constitution, the role of the bar association in the NJC is quite limited. We have representation in the NJC, but the representation is only for the purpose of appointment.
“We don’t participate in the discipline of judges and other key decisions of the NJC. We have been strongly advocating for a greater role for the representatives of the bar association on the NJC. I think right now, there is a general consensus that the bar association should play an active role and its representatives on the council should have full rights as other members.
“In addition, we have advocated very strongly for the appointment of lawyers to the bench of the Supreme Court. In our view, this will be a means of enhancing the quality of the Supreme Court bench and we recognise that this a difficult issue but we have discussed extensively.
“We are very confident that part of the problem that have bedeviled the Nigeria judiciary, is the method of recruitment into the system. We want to open it up and make the system to be more transparent and inclusive. We should have possibilities of having new mind and blood, those who have excelled either in practice or academics.”
In addition the NBA boss said, “at the moment, we have gone through a process of identifying qualified persons for that possible appointment and we have made recommendations to the NJC and hopefully, we will continue to engage and we are confident that if the process goes through, this will be a major step in enhancing the quality of the judiciary.”
