By Michael Chibuzo
A day after the Supreme Court delivered judgment in the appeals filed by the candidates of the PDP and the Labour Party in the 2023 presidential election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and Mr. Peter Obi respectively, a retiring Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Musa Dattijo Muhammad has unleashed a parting salvo at the Supreme Court and by extension the entire judiciary.
During a valedictory speech as he bowed out of the apex court, Justice Dattijo made some damning verdicts about the institution he has spent 40 years of his career in lamenting that the Nigerian judiciary has changed from the one he ‘joined, desired to serve and be identified with’. Justice Dattijo also condemned the enormous amount of power concentrated in the office of the Chief Justice of Nigeria by the law in terms of appointments into various judicial bodies and general administration of the judicial system itself.
Justice Dattijo, who until his retirement was the second in command to the CJN by virtue of being the second most senior Justice on the Supreme Court bench also decried the fact that the law did not assign him any official function except that which the CJN chooses to assign to him.
The retired Justice equally sounded the alarm of gross shortage of Justices in the Supreme Court following non-replacement of retired Justices or those who recently died. This according to Justice Dattijo meant that the South East and the North Central (where he comes from) are now left with no single Justice in the Supreme Court. He laid the blame on the feet of the CJN who he insinuated deliberately decided not to replace these Justices, even when there was ample time to do so since their exits.
Justice Musa Dattijo going further also alleged that appointments to judicial positions are deliberately conducted to give undue advantage to the children, spouses and mistresses of serving and retired judges and managers of judicial offices. He regretted that people now lobby and bribe their way through to be appointed judges and that court officials and judges are in turn easily bribed by litigants to delay cases and/or obtain favourable judgments.
The honourable Justice Dattijo also touched on the issue of welfare and particularly poor salary structure of the Supreme Court Justices stating that the Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court earns more than the CJN in terms of monthly salary. He also appeared to query recent decisions of the Supreme Court such as the case between Gov. Hope Uzodimma of Imo State and Chief Emeka Ihedioha as well as that of the former Senate President, Ahmad Lawan stating that it is difficult to understand how and where, by these decisions, the judicial pendulum swings.
From the foregoing, it was obvious to see that the retiring Justice Dattijo was not leaving the judiciary a happy man and was less than satisfied with the state of the nation’s judiciary. It is pertinent to point out that most of what Justice Musa Dattijo (rtd) poured out in his valedictory address are not new issues but perennial maladies that have plagued the Nigerian judiciary.
However, I want to point out that it appears Justice Musa Dattijo Muhammad was displaying anger from a place not entirely hinged on desire for reforms in the judicial system, which he has been a part and parcel of for the last four decades. I sensed a form of personal frustration at his inability to go a step further in his career to become the CJN. He retired when he was just a step away from being the CJN and had to serve as Deputy CJN for a short while, a post he clearly found out to be more or less ceremonial.
It is true that the Constitution seem to have vested much powers in the hands of the CJN by virtue of him being the Chairman of the NJC, FJSC, NJI and the LPPC, however these powers are no where near absolute! The framers of the Constitution ostensibly made the CJN Chairman of the judicial bodies because as CJN he heads the third arm of government – the Judiciary.
The CJN notwithstanding being the Head of the Judiciary, cannot lead like an emperor because by default there are mechanisms within the judicial system that helps to exercise some form of checks and balances and dilutes his powers greatly. For example, the CJN heads the NJC that statutorily comprises of 24 members at full strength. Out this 24 members, the CJN exercises discretion in appointing 14 members (5 retired Justices from the Supreme Court or Court of Appeal; 5 serving Chief Judges of States, a president of the Customary Court of Appeal, a Grand Kadi and two non-legal practitioners).
Out of these 14 members of the NJC selected by the CJN, in reality, he exercises near absolute discretion in just 7 of the appointments (the five retired Justices from the Supreme Court and the Appeal Court and the two non-legal practitioners). The other 7 appointments are serving judicial officers who are rotated after two years. Also, the membership of the remaining 9 persons excluding the CJN, who are automatic members of the NJC are not influenced in any way by the CJN.
Aside the composition of the NJC, decisions of the NJC are arrived at by simple majority. The CJN cannot override the majority votes. It is therefore unfair to state that the CJN has absolute powers. If a particular CJN exhibits tendencies tantamount to display of absolute powers, then it simply amounts to failure on the part of the other 23 members of the NJC to do their work properly.
The power of the CJN in real terms is even more limited in the Federal Judicial Service Commission. The FJSC is made up of nine statutory members none of whom is appointed by the CJN at his discretion. The decisions of the Commission is equally reached by a simple majority votes of members. Consequently it is impossible for the CJN to wield absolute power in the FJSC if other members are doing their work diligently.
Coming back to the NJC, in which Justice Dattijo served as Deputy Chairman until his retirement, meetings of the Council are convened and presided by the Chairman, who is the CJN. However, if for any reason, the CJN fails to convene a meeting of the Council to deliberate and take decisions on pressing matters affecting the judiciary, five or more members of the NJC can convene a meeting by making a request to that effect in writing to the CJN.
In the absence of the CJN, the other members can elect someone to preside over the meeting with all decisions taken carrying the same weight as if it were presided by the CJN. This is why I feel that if we are to be fair in our assessment of the state of our judiciary, the rot inherent in it and the way it administers justice or disciplines erring judicial officers, then the scapegoat should not be the office of the CJN only. All members of the judicial bodies share responsibility since they have equal voting rights. By not acting courageously, they are complicit in the rot.
Regardless of the main motive behind the valedictory outburst by Justice Musa Dattijo Muhammad (rtd), it is important that the administrators of our judicial arm of government at the national and subnational level urgently wake up from their slumber to begin a total cleansing of the judiciary and reposition it for quicker dispensation of justice. A lot of recommendations have been made by retiring judicial officers in their valedictory sessions, now is the time for those serving to implement many of them.
First and foremost, the Supreme Court bench needs to be constituted to its full capacity. The recruitment exercise for Supreme Court Justices that commenced in 2022 must come to a speedy conclusion with at least 11 new Justices brought on board. Also, the welfare of judges across board must be urgently addressed as a priority. Like President Bola Ahmed Tinubu stated in his remarks at the 29th Nigerian Economic Summit, you cannot expect a judge to deliver justice with a hungry stomach.
The process of recruiting judges should also be sanitised to reduce the influence of serving or retired judges in the entire recruitment process. I believe this is where reforms in the rules and regulations guiding recruitment of judicial officers need to be undertaken to throw it open instead of the current tradition where serving or retired Justices have great influence in nominating candidates for appointment as judges. This opens the door for them to nominate their children, spouses and mistresses as Justice Dattijo complained.
To restore full confidence in the judiciary, the judiciary itself needs to be serious about reforming the institution because the Constitution as currently composed provides them with all the tools they need to carry out a comprehensive in-house cleansing. Corrupt judicial officers need to be increasingly shown the way out of the judiciary. The judiciary should not wait for the type of executive intervention and raids that happened during the last administration before it purges itself. Let the parting outburst by Justice Dattijo be the wake-up call.