What is your reaction to the recent judgment of the National Industrial Court for increment in judges’ salaries?
The advocacy for better remuneration for judges has been a long-standing one, since 1999, and it is unfortunate the government has only been paying lip service to the condition under which our judges function. On the other hand, the judiciary has not helped matters. The judiciary has not enabled Nigerians to fight for them because Nigerians don’t trust the judiciary anymore. That has negatively affected advocacy for the judiciary.
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So, the judiciary should clean up itself and ensure that it is able to get into the good books of the public and let the public see that it is an independent arm of government that can hold power to account. Until we can see this missing link, it would be very difficult for people to fight for the judiciary. A lot of people do not think that the judiciary has earned that kind of support.
So now that we have this judgment, it is important to restore the institutional credibility of the judiciary as people would want to see the judiciary as a transparent and strong institution. Even with this judgment, it is not yet uhuru for the judiciary.
Some have suggested that the government may not have the money to pay the new salaries, do you agree?
If you look at the amount other arms of the government get monthly, you will see an outrageous disparity with what the judiciary gets. So it is important to establish that the judiciary is underfunded.
Should the immediate past Chief Justice of Nigeria Ibrahim Tanko be commended for voluntary resignation or should he be blamed following the leaked letter by 14 justices?
First of all, I commend him for his disengagement, if we have to go by the records. The fact that health presents a challenge for him to continue in office in that circumstance, I commend him. We can talk about the letter written by the other justice, but he did the right thing by leaving.
In another clime, the fact that his brother justices had written what amounted to a vote of no confidence should have made him leave office to trigger that kind of response, but we are not there yet.
What advice do you have for the NBA president-elect Y. C. Maikyau SAN?
I congratulate him for the election and I think the work has been cut out for him by the NBA to have an effective system of justice. He needs to ensure that our system of justice is improved, strengthened and that better integrity is given to the judiciary.
He needs to ensure that he puts his weight in enforcing the judgment for better salaries to the judiciary. His primary constituency is the bar, and it is taken for granted that he would work hard to improve the welfare of the members of the bar.
The justice system in which the members of the bar work is in distress right now. If he does not help to improve the system of justice, members of the bar would likely have their roles not well defined.
Next year, 2023, is an election year in the country, is there any specific role the NBA president-elect should play?
It is an epochal time for him to be NBA president, and of course, like every other Nigerian, he must ensure that we have credible elections. More than that, he needs to ensure that the bar and bench work effectively to ensure that resolutions of election petitions occur within the time stipulated.
The bar needs to fight corruption, and he should make sure that both the bar and bench can be trusted ethically.