Published 28th Oct, 2023

By Sodeeq Atanda

Justice Musa Dattijo Muhammd retired yesterday after 47 years of service and attaining the compulsory retirement age of 70 years for judicial officers in the country.

At the event graced by top members of the judiciary and eminent individuals from different walks of life, the retired justice delivered a 31-page exit speech in which some instructive points about the enhancement of the justice sector were made.

He devoted the first nine pages of the speech to his family history and his ingress into the nation’s judiciary two weeks after he graduated from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, in June 1976. He then passed comments about how the justice sector has fared over the years.

FAILURE TO FILL VACANCIES IN THE COURT DELIBERATE

According to him, the current number of justices of the Supreme Court is effectively costing the system of efficiency and transparency. With his exit, the court now has just 10 justices, instead of the 21 prescribed by the constitution to be spread across all the geopolitical sections of the country.

His retirement now leaves the north central region, the south-south and southeast without a representation. While the south west and north west each have the required three justices, the south-south and north east have two each.

The court last had 21 justices in 2020, when the then Chief Justice Muhammad Tanko inducted eight justices into the existing 13 justices. The number, however, drastically reduced to the present number owing to deaths and retirements of some judicial officers.

He also touched on the excessive powers conferred on the office of the Chief Justice of Nigeria and the all-important reason to cut same down. As it stands, the CJN chairs the National Judicial Council (NJC), the Federal Judicial Service Commission (FJSC), the National Judicial Institute (NJI) and the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee, a body responsible for appointing senior advocates of Nigeria. This status quo needs to change, the former judge said.

ACCOUNTABILITY LACKING IN THE JUDICIARY

Muhammad also queried the lack of financial accountability within the judiciary. He alluded to the steady increase in the allocations to the sector in the eight years of the former President Muhammadu Buhari and the recently allocated fund by the new government.

He said N70 billion was allocated to the sector in 2015. It was increased to N100 billion in 2017 fiscal year and N110 billion in 2018. As of May 2023, when the old government bowed out, the sector’s allocation had surged to N130 billion, out of which more than 85 percent had been released to the sector. The new government has also allocated N35 billion to the judiciary in the supplementary budget, making it a total of N165 billion accessible to the justice sector.

Despite this phenomenal increase, the judicial officers are not delivering comparable services. He also pointed out that the Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court earns more than the CJN, a situation he said was embarrassing and painted the bad welfare conditions of judges.

APPOINTMENTS NOW BY LOBBY RATHER THAN MERIT

The Niger State indigene bemoaned the process of appointing justices of the court, saying the years when pivotal consideration was given to merit had phased out.

With the heavy politicisation of the judiciary and sectional interests, public estimation of the sector and its officers has “become witheringly scornful and monstrously critical,” he said.

He also mentioned the judgements that enabled Ahmad Lawan, former Senate President, to become the Yobe North Senatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress in the last election and the Imo State governorship appeal that returned Hope Uzodinma as governor of the state as the cases, among other instances, Nigerians had viewed with discontent.

There were insinuations in some quarters that the “children, spouses and mistresses” of judicial managers had comparative advantage over highly qualified Nigerians in the process of appointing judicial officers, the retired judge stated.

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