As he clocked the mandatory retirement age of 70 years on Friday, Supreme Court Justice Dattijo Muhammad delivered a brutal criticism of the “absolute powers” of the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), faulting the composition of the apex court’s panel that affirmed last 25th February election of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu as Nigeria’s president, on Thursday.
At the valedictory session in his honour at the Supreme Court complex in Abuja, Justice Muhammad, in what is the first-of-its-kind frontal criticism of a sitting CJN, said the CJN enjoyed over-concentration of oversight and administrative powers across the nation’s judiciary.
Although the CJN, Justice Olukayode Ariwoola was a member of the presidential election appeal panel, he was responsible for constituting the panel, headed by Justice John Inyang Okon. Others were Justice Uwani Musa Abba-Aji, Justice Mohammed Lawal Garba, Justice Ibrahim Saulawa, Justice Adamu Jauro, Justice Tijjani Abubakar and Justice Emmanuel Agim.
Justice Muhammad said that all the six geopolitical zones ought to have been represented on the Supreme Court election appeal panel.
The panel chairman, Justice Okoro, who hails from Akwa Ibom State, and Justice Agim from Cross River State are both of South South geopolitical zone; while the North East had Justices Abba-Aji, Abubakar (both from Yobe State), and Justice Jauro (Gombe State); and North West produced Justices Garba (Zamfara State) and Saulawa (Katsina State).
North Central, South East and South West zones did not have members on the panel. But with Friday’s retirement of Justice Muhammad (from Niger State), and the 29th July death of Justice Centus Nweze (Enugu State) at 64 years old, the North Central and South East zones no longer have Supreme Court justices.
Justice Muhammad blamed the tardiness in ensuring the two regions – North Central and South East – had representatives on the Supreme Court bench on the CJN. He said it was deliberate and it “is all about the absolute powers vested in the office of the CJN”.
The South West was also not represented on the panel.
Drawing on his wealth of experience as a judge, Justice Muhammad faulted the absence of Nigeria’s South East region from the Supreme Court bench.
He blamed the situation on “the absolute powers vested in the office of the CJN”.
With Justice Muhammad’s exit, the North Central region joins the South East in not having a representative on the Supreme Court bench.
He chronicled the depletion of the Supreme Court bench either by retirement or death of justices from the North Central and Southeast zones.
“As it stands, only four geo-political regions- the South West, South-South, North West and North East are represented in the Supreme Court.
“While the South South and North East have two serving justices, the North-west and South-west are fully represented with three each,” he explained.
The retiring judge noted that “appropriate steps could have been taken since to fill outstanding vacancies in the Supreme Court. Why have these steps not been timeously taken?
“It is evident that the decision not to fill the vacancies in the court is deliberate. It is all about the absolute powers vested in the office of the CJN and the responsible exercise of the same”.
Although the CJN recently advertised vacancies in the court, which currently has 10 Justices, the court is 11 short of its full complement of 21 justices.
“To ensure justice and transparency in presidential appeals from the lower court, all geo-political zones are required to participate in the hearing.
“It is therefore dangerous for democracy and equity for two entire regions to be left out in the decisions that will affect the generality of Nigerians”, the judge warned.
The retired Justice’s broadside is the latest from a retiring justice of the Supreme Court aiming at a sitting CJN and different aspects of Nigeria’s judiciary’s opaque and inefficient systems.
PREMIUM TIMES reported, in June last year, how 14 justices of the Supreme Court expressed their displeasure to the then CJN, Justice Tanko Muhammad, concerning the parlous state of affairs at the apex court.
The protesting judges hadaccused the former CJN of highhandedness and abuse of office.
Justice Muhammad’s criticism comes less than two months after a former Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Abdul Aboki, during his valedictory court session, called for transparency in the expenditure of funds belonging to the judiciary.
In May 2022, Justice Ejembi Eko, who was retiring from the apex court, decried the corruption in the Nigerian judiciary, especially in the handling of its finances.
“Nothing stops the office of the Auditor-General of the Federation, the ICPC and other investigatory agencies from opening the books of the judiciary to expose the corruption in the management of their budgetary resources”, Justice Eko said at his valedictory court session, calling on anti-graft agencies to probe the financial records of the judiciary.
In his statement on Friday, Justice Muhammad recalled his nearly five-decade judicial career, rising to the top as the second most senior justice of the Supreme Court before bowing out on Friday.
He said the CJN as chairman of the National Judicial Council (NJC) and other statutory Judicial bodies like – the Federal Judicial Service Commission (FJSC), the National Judicial Institute (NJI), and the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee (LPPC), the jurist noted that “the oversight functions of these bodies should not rest on an individual alone. A person with absolute powers, it is said, corrupts easily and absolutely”.
He asserted that the CJN given his enormous powers, appoints members of the various judicial institutions without conferring “with fellow justices nor seek their counsel or input on any matter related to these bodies. He has both the final and the only say.
“The CJN has the power to appoint 80 per cent of members of the council (NJC) and 60 per cent of members of FJSC. The same applies to NJI and LPPC.
“Such enormous powers are effortlessly abused. This needs to change. Continued denial of the existence of this threatening anomaly weakens effective judicial oversight in the country”.
Justice Muhammad’s intervention also touched on the issue of funding and independence of the judiciary.
He argued that while the judiciary’s budget soared from N70 billion in 2015 to N165 billion currently, Justice Muhammad said: “Justices and officers’ welfare and the quality of service the judiciary renders have continued to decline.”
Delving into the vexed issue of judges salaries, Justice Muhammad wondered why “…the Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court earns more than the Justices. While she earns N1.2 million per month, justices take home N751,000 in a month.”
“The CJN on his part takes home N400, 000 plus. The salary of a Justice, curiously, drops rather than increases when he gets the added responsibility of being a CJN.
“That the unjust and embarrassing salary difference between the justices and the Chief Registrar still abides remains intriguing to say the least”.
