DATE: 26/04/2024
VENUE: OLUSEGUN OBASANJO AUDITORIUM, FEDERAL MINISTRY OF JUSTICE, ABUJA
Thank you very much for attending this event. The presentation of the communique of the National Summit on Justice that was held at the National Judicial Institute Abuja from Wednesday 24th to 25th April, 2024.
This communique is issued following a very productive two days. The theme of the summit was Repositioning the Justice Sector in Nigeria: Constitutional Statutory and Operational Reforms for Access and Efficiency. The focus of the summit was on promoting cooperation and collaboration between all justice sector stakeholders in Nigeria, and the key areas of discussion included the validation and adoption of the revised National Policy on Justice 2024 to 2028, which outlines a roadmap for significant reforms in Nigeria’s justice sector.
The second was consideration and consensus building on specific justice sector reform proposals. These reform initiatives aimed to reposition the Nigerian justice system through a combination of constitutional statutory and operational changes.
Ultimately, the goal is to ensure improved access to justice and greater efficiency in Justice Administration. The Summit began with an opening ceremony which was attended by His Excellency the President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu who was represented by His Excellency, the Vice President. Kashim, Mustafa Shettima, who declared the Summit open. The Summit also had in attendance dignitaries, such as the Senate President Godswill Akpabio, GCON, the Chief Justice of Nigeria Honourable Justice Olukayode Ariwoola and the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice who was also the chief host, Prince Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, the Minister of Interior Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, the Chief of Defence Staff General Christopher Gwabin Musa OFR, the president of the Nigerian Bar Association Mr. YC, Maikyau, SAN and the former Chief Justice of Kenya Dr. Willy Mutunga ETH, who was the keynote speaker, amongst a host of other dignitaries.
The opening ceremony had welcome addresses from each of these dignitaries. The Honourable Attorney General of the Federation gave the welcome address in which he emphasised that the purpose of the Summit is to serve as a platform for stakeholders to discuss and address critical issues affecting Justice Administration in Nigeria. These issues listed included access to justice, improving efficiency in service delivery, and strengthening the independence of the judiciary. The revised National Policy on Justice, he said, proposes interventions in areas such as human rights protection, fair trial mechanisms, alternative dispute resolution, and technological advancements for a more efficient system. The Summit acknowledged the importance of collaboration between various stakeholders, including the executive, the judiciary, the Nigerian Bar Association, and various development partners to achieve these goals.
Welcome addresses rows are delivered by the President of the Nigerian Bar Association, the Chief Justice of Nigeria, the Chief of Defence Staff gave goodwill remarks and we had a very incisive keynote address from Dr. Willy Mutunga, the former Chief Justice of Kenya, in which he emphasised the overall importance of safeguarding the judiciary from political influence for a fair and impartial justice system. Dr Mutunga, while presenting Kenya’s constitutional reform journey as a potential model for Nigeria, highlighted key areas for improvement, including revamping legal education, to prioritise public interest litigation, and ensuring broader access to justice for all Nigerians. He also suggested a comprehensive review of Nigeria’s constitution to strengthen its democratic foundations beyond national borders. He called for Pan African collaboration in the legal sphere by proposing the establishment of a central institute dedicated to legal scholarship and collaboration across the continent to foster a unified legal framework for African courts ultimately strengthen the legal system of all African states. The Senate President, in his own remarks noted that the National Assembly is committed to integrating the proposed reforms into ongoing constitutional amendments and prioritising measures to reduce court backlogs and delays. He made specific proposals such as requiring all appeals and civil cases to occur after the conclusion of the case, abolishing, to the extent possible interlocutory appeals that delay proceedings and replacing the requirement for the Attorney General’s consent for the execution of judgments with a notification system that will oblige judgement creditors to notify the Attorney General with a set response deadline. He also highlighted the need to harness technology for case management and emphasise the importance of collaboration between the National Assembly, the Ministry of Justice, the judiciary, the Nigerian Bar Association, and all other stakeholders. He noted that they all play a crucial role, or they would all play a crucial role in implementing the reforms that are being proposed, and in ensuring a just an efficient legal system for all Nigerians.
His Excellency, the President, whom, as I said, was represented by His Excellency the Vice President, extended gratitude for the collaborative efforts on justice sector reform, highlighting the significant effort of his administration in providing increased funding for the judiciary. He emphasised the crucial role of a functional justice system in supporting economic growth and safeguarding basic human rights. He underscored the urgency for leaders of justice sector institutions to prioritise comprehensive reforms. These reforms essentially aim at enhancing access to justice, ensuring timeliness, maintaining quality, and fostering accountability and transparency within the system. Professor Mohammed Tabiu, who led the team that oversaw the preparation of the National Policy on Justice presented the policy to the to the Summit, and he noted that the policy was developed through a comprehensive consultation process initiated by the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice. This consultation process culminated in a technical session for all solicitors general and permanent secretaries in the Federation, chaired by the Solicitor General of the Federation Mrs. B E, Jedy-Agbamni, where they reviewed and validated the draft policy on 23rd April 2024 in Abuja. This collaborative effort was to ensure that the policy reflects the needs and priorities of the justice sector stakeholders as a whole.
Goodwill messages were delivered by development partners, Dr. Oliver Stopple of the UNODC. Also we had goodwill message from UNICEF and International IDEA, Mr. Roba Sharamo of International IDEA and Samuel Isopi of the European Union delegation to Nigeria, amongst others.
The validation of the national policy and justice was conducted by Mr. Felix Ota-Okojie who is sitting right here with me the Motion for adoption was moved by Mr. Wale Fapohunda, SAN. and was seconded by Mrs. Boma Alabi, SAN. The national policy on justice was adopted as proposed. This National Policy on Justice 2024 to 2028 will now serve as a roadmap, paving the way for a more efficient, equitable and responsive justice system for all Nigerians. After the opening ceremony, we had three technical sessions, one on the 24th. The technical session on day one, focused on judicial appointments and selection as an area of concern and the specific themes that were examined were, one, assessing the performance of the National Judicial Council in discharging his responsibility for judicial appointments into the Superior Courts of record. The second was examining the structure and role of the State Judicial Service Commission’s in the judicial appointments process. And the third was in examining the philosophical underpinnings of the judicial appointments process, structural and constitutional dimensions and the proposals for Constitutional and legislative reform. Each of these themes were examined by panels made up of distinguished legal luminaries and experts who shared their views on these topics. The first panel was moderated by Mrs. Funke Adekoya and had Honourable Justice Benedict Kanyip, the President of the National Industrial Court, Dr. Oliver Stolpe of the UNODC; Professor Ameze Guobadia of the Faculty of Law, University of Lagos and Dr. Muiz banire, SAN as members. Dr. Muiz Banire had been a former member of the NJC. The general consensus reached by this panel was that the role of the NJC in discharging his responsibility for judicial appointments into the Superior Court of record required significant review. There was a concern expressed about the fact that the Chief Justice of Nigeria, who is the chairman of the NJC is also the chairman of the Federal Judicial Service Commission, which is the body that initially reviews proposals or lists of candidates by appointment into judicial office. The members pointed out the seeming inconsistency between the chief justice of Nigeria playing both those roles, as it would appear that he was then recommending candidates to himself being chairman of both bodies, and being the person who appoints a significant number of the members of both bodies other than those who are statutory members.
The proposals for reform that had been made by the Nigerian Bar Association were considered and approved in modified form. There’s a general consensus or there was a general consensus that there was a need to reconstitute or proposed the reconstitution of these bodies, both the National Judicial Council and the Federal Judicial Service Commission.
The second panel examining the role of State Judicial Service Commission’s was moderated by Dr. Uju Agomoh and had as panelistJustice Alaba Omolaye-Ajileye, PhD (Rtd), Professor Oyelowo Oyewo, SAN, former Dean of the Faculty of Law, University of Lagos, and former Attorney General for Oyo state, Mr. Wale Fapohunda, SAN, former Attorney General of Ekiti State and Dr. Musa Aliyu, SAN, former Attorney General of JigawaState and current chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices andRelated Offences Commission. The second panel also focused on the role of the State Judicial Service Commission, and also concluded that there was a significant need for reform in the performance of their roles. There were quite a lot of observations made by the two three former Attorneys General who had participated as members or statutory members of the State Judicial Service Commissions in one form or the other about the composition of the state judicial Service Commissions about the need to ensure that that composition is more diverse, that it reflects the interests of the users of the justice sector. And perhaps most pointedly was the observation made by Justice Alaba Omolaye-Ajileye, about the fact that the current NJC Guidelines may have subverted the intent of the constitutional provision, empowering the State Judicial Service Commissions to make judicial appointments, because the NJC guidelines, rather than authorising the State Judicial Service Commissions to prepare a shortlist of potential candidates for judicial appointments, appear to address that responsibility solely in the chairman. And the chairmen of the State Judicial Service Commissions are the Chief Judges of the states. So, there was apointed suggestion that in the short term, even before we get to constitutional amendments, regarding the composition of State Judicial Service Commissions, a low hanging fruit that could be dealt with immediately, is an amendment of that aspect of the NGC guidelines to make clear that the development or preparation of shortlist of candidates for judicial appointments is something that is to be done by the Commissions as a whole and not just by the Chief Judges.
The third session, which dealt with the philosophical underpinnings of the judicial appointments, process, structural and constitutional dimensions and proposals for Constitutional and legislative reform, was moderated by Professor Dakas C.J. Dakas, SAN, a former Attorney General of Plateau State, and a very active and committed member of our planning committee. The panelists were Dr. Olisa Agbakoba, former president of the Nigerian Bar Association, Professor Yusuf Ali SAN, Mr. Joseph Otteh, who is the convener of the Access for Justice and Dr. Jan van zyl Smith, who is the Acting Director of the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law in London, England, who came down from London to participate in this session. The session considered the general approach that ought to be taken to reforming the judicial appointments process, and stressed the fact that the focus should be on increased transparency in the appointment process, a focus on meritocracy and a focus on meaningful performance evaluations of those who seek judicial office. Recommendations were made that we should consider the model that is currently being used in Kenya. And also there was a consensus that there is a need to codify the judicial appointments process, such that the discretion that is currently witnessed in the appointments process is reduced to the barest minimum.
The first session of the second day focused on funding, budgeting and administration for the judiciary. The first session was titled examining the efficiency of the current constitutional framework for the funding administration and budgeting for the judiciary, the allocation of resources and accountability on the part of the judiciary. This session was to have been moderated by Mr. Etigwe Uwa, SAN, who was unavoidably absent, and I had to stand in for him. The panelists were Honourable Justice Isa Ayo Salami, retired President of the Court of Appeal; Honourable Justice Oludotun Adefope-Okojie, retired justice of the Court of Appeal and Mr. Robert Emukpoeruo, SAN, who was the lead consultant to the Senate in the last constitution amendment exercise. We examined the current constitutional framework for the funding administration and budgeting for the judiciary, and as with the previous day’s sessions, concluded that there was a need for significant reform. It became evident from interaction with the audience present,was made up of a significant number of chief judges of the various states and of the various courts and Grand Kadis, as well as the Attorneys General of quite a lot of the States and the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation, that the current process for funding the courts was totally deficient. It became evident in the course of the session that the provisions of the Constitution as amended by the Fifth Amendment, authorising the directing that funding for the State courts should be a joint effort carried out by the executive and the judiciary was not being implemented in any shape or form in the majority of the states. And clear recommendations were made that this was something that needed to be pursued and dealt with decisively. It was evident in the course of the session that perhaps the funding for the judiciary at the federal level is in a much better position than what obtains in the states of the Federation.
The second session dealt with examining various models for professionalising the administration of the courts, whilst ensuring the independence of the judiciary and proposals for Constitutional and legislative reform. This session, again, was moderated by me. The panelists were honourable Justice Kasim Zannah, Chief Judge of Borno State, Dr. John Sorabji, who is a subject matter experts from the University College London, who joined us virtually and Professor Bolaji Owasanoye, the immediate past chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission. Again, the consensus was on the need for significant reform. It was a very lively session. We arrived at a consensus that yes, there is a need to professionalise there administration of the courts, there’s a need to appoint persons with clear administrative experience to be selected through a transparent process to administer the courts, and to separate the administration of the courts from the administration of justice. I think the area of debate was not so much as to the sense common sense behind this, but as to who should exercise the power to appoint these administrators, so as to ensure that the independence of the judiciary was not subverted. And the consensus was that that was something that would be taken back and debated in the course of crafting the appropriate legislation. But there was a clear consensus on the need to improve the…to professionalise the administration of the courts, acknowledging the fact that judges are, by their training, not versed in administration or management, but are trained to adjudicate over cases.
The third session of the day, dealt with eradicating delays in the administration of justice agenda for leveraging the rules of procedure and effective case management in Nigeria, and the focus was on the administration of Criminal Justice Act laws and the administration of civil justice law. The session was moderated by Professor Peter Akper, SAN of the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies. And the panelists were Mr. Isaiah Bozimo, SAN, former Attorney General of Delta State, Mr. Babatunde Fagbohunlu, SAN and Mr. Fernandez Marcus-Obiene, SA to the President on Justice Sector Reform. The panel considered a variety of proposals and strategies that could be employed to enhance the speed of justice delivery in Nigeria. Most of these proposals were accepted by the panelists present and by the audience as being worthy of adoption. To name a few, the panel considered the importance of limiting the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, and ensuring that matters that would go to the Supreme Court would only be matters of significant national importance. And even at that would only be by the leave of the Supreme Court, and that the automatic right of appeal to the Supreme Court will be severely curtailed and will be limited only to matters relating to the office and the election into the office of the president of the federation, Vice President and, and Governors of the States.
The last session of the day, dealt with discipline at the bar and on the bench, the case for enhanced disciplinary powers, performance management, and court monitoring. This session was moderated by Dr. Anthony Idigbe, SAN. The panelists were Honourable Justice Mohammed Garba, JSC., Honourable Justice Olusola Williams (Rtd.) Miss Hadiza Usman of partners West Africa, Nigeria, and Professor Yemi Akinseye-George, San. The session dealt at length with the challenges with discipline at the Bar and on the Bench, and the fact that this problems of indiscipline at the Bar and on the Bench, were significant contributors to the current inefficiency of the justice sector, and also to the lack of confidence that the populace have or seem to have now, in the justice sector in Nigeria.Various proposals were put forward to enhance the level of discipline at the Bar, not least of which was the need for there to be clarity as to who has the authority to discipline, legal practitioners and also issues as to how to improve the efficiency of the disciplinary process for legal practitioners. Similar concerns were expressed about discipline and monitoring of performance of judicial officers. And it was agreed that significant steps needed to be taken in these areas to enhance the quality of justice delivery in Nigeria and increase the confidence of members of the public in our justice sector.
The consensus at the end of the Summit was that issues raised were topical and significant. And there’s was a commitment by the Honourable Attorney General and by all present that had listened to the discussions and deliberations at the Summit, there was a need to engage as quickly as possible in converting these discussions and resolutions into draft legislation that will be presented to the National Assembly for inclusion in the ongoing constitution review process, and also for non-constitutional related legislation to be implemented almost immediately. With this, we come to the end of this communique and we thank you very much for your participation. Thank you.
BY
DR. BABATUNDE AJIBADE, SAN
