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Salami: A judge’s travails at the temple of justice

The occasion was the 10th Gani Fawehinmi annual lecture organized by Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Ikeja branch and the erudite Ayo Salami, the retired President…

The occasion was the 10th Gani Fawehinmi annual lecture organized by Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Ikeja branch and the erudite Ayo Salami, the retired President of the court of Appeal has been chosen as the chairman of the day. The fact that Salami was chosen to preside over the gathering was actually not the story, rather, it was the rare narration of a judge about whose travails at the temple of Nigerian justice many have had to inquire.
“I am happy that I have also been able to make a difference in my own little way to ensure that as humans and irrespective of our positions in life, we diligently and honestly serve the cause of justice at all times. I am sure you will agree with me that this noble cause comes with a price,” Salami said as he kick-started the narration of what could easily pass for a judge’s odyssey.
Though, Salami was not in any mood to go into event-by-event account of what transpired, the few he chose to dwell on were instructive enough in passing across his intended message. And this he started with what he called “my sins.”
“I must say that as a matter of fact, part of my ‘sins’ is the fact that God helped me throughout my career to resist all temptations to be influenced by anybody in dispensing justice. My conscience is intact and my relationship with my God (to whom I am accountable) is sacred and also intact,” the retired judge said.
Salami was to move a step further in opening a can of worms, when he said: “I should like to let you know that in the course of my travails, the National Judicial Council (NJC) set up the Auta committee (Justice Auta is a completely junior judge or judicial officer to me) to make recommendations on the NJC investigative panel (Justice Umaru Abdullahi’s panel). This is meant to humiliate me. But God turned the humiliation to vindication for me, in that the Auta committee adopted a laughable procedure by introducing a completely new dimension to the case without giving me any hearing at all.”
According to the retired Court of Appeal president, he was neither tried at the NJC Investigative Panel nor was the issue of breaking the Code of Conduct for Judicial Officers by speaking to journalists raised with him when the Auta committee was at work.  He said the committee which was ordinarily supposed to act on the findings of the NJC investigative panel, however, exceeded its boundary when it said it took “judicial notice” of the fact that he spoke to the press.
“I was never called upon to defend the issue before the Auta committee. During the period, I had a case pending at the Federal High Court in Abuja to stop the proceedings before the committee. When told by a member of the committee that I had a case challenging their sitting at the Federal High Court and that they should not proceed on the assignment, he (Auta) said they had not been served to stop further proceedings on the matter. Obviously, the conclusion was already predetermined because it is very elementary that what was important was not service but notice of the process,” Salami said.
Interestingly, Salami said Auta committee’s flawed proceedings actually vindicated him. In his explanation, Salami cited one related case in which Justice Auta goofed, that followed similar path. “Why I said at the beginning that I was vindicated on this issue is that Justice Auta as a result of this effort to implicate me at all costs fell into the same grave error as he did before, which Nikki Tobi (JCA as he was then) condemned in the election petition case of Oriobona v. Obiorah (1999)8 NWLR (PE 616) 622 at 645-646.
Salami noted that the learned Justice Tobi had chastised Auta for sitting over a case twice. First, as the judge of a High Court and as the chairman of electoral tribunal. Justice Tobi was said to have been aghast as he described Auta’s attitude as the strangest thing he has ever experienced as a sitting judge.
Instructively, the retired judge was not willing to absolve the culpability of certain lawyers in the shenanigans ridiculing the judiciary. He had some scathing words for the senior members of the bar.
“Whatever happens or goes wrong in the judicial system, lawyers (particularly some senior lawyers) are involved. There are some who have the capacity to influence and intimidate the courts and they do it with relish.
“Again, we have to leave this to history, posterity and ultimately God. One thing I know for sure is that if Gani were alive and in charge, he would not have allowed the matter to be swept under the carpet. Sometimes (and when it matters) some members of the Bar representing NBA on the NJC hardly stand up for the truth, not to talk of speaking the truth,” Salami said.
For the retired judge, all that transpired while his travails lasted, captured in totality, what Nigerian judiciary has come to represent in recent years.
“One wonders where lies the hope of a common man in getting justice with this crop of men at the helm of affairs at the NJC. This is why, in spite of the disposition of the present Chief Justice of Nigeria, all her efforts to rid the judiciary of corrupt elements are being frustrated,” Salami further said.
Perhaps, also of profound importance is the revelation by Salami that certain questionable elements have infiltrated the judicial system, and that such personalities find their way to the uppermost level of their judicial career. He was, however, quick to add that the situation been left to fester because the Nigerian society appears passive because no one is often willing to “bail the cat”.
“The problem with the Nigerian judiciary is that some dishonourable people not fit to be judges get into the stream and then make it to the highest level of the judicial career. Another major point why the problem with the judiciary will remain unresolved or even compounded for a long time is that Nigerians do not naturally want the truth to be told. Whoever tells the truth is marked for destruction,” he observed.
To redress the many ugly scenarios, Justice Salami listed a number of issues to be addressed, noting that if they are addressed, the Nigerian legal and judicial system might be on the pathway to the needed restructuring.
The first issue Salami wanted to be addressed is to stop the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) from being the chairman of the Judicial Council so as not to allow the occupant taking undue advantage of that position and the office. He cited the case of the police, saying the Inspector-General of Police is not the chairman of the Police Service Commission.
The retired judge also suggested the need for each state of the federation to have its own Appeal and Supreme Courts and where each of the states are incapable of putting in place Supreme Courts, he canvassed for Zonal Appeal and Supreme Courts. Such courts are to be patronized by the states that make up the zone. His argument was that it is always difficult for a judge from an extreme part of the country to adjudicate cases at another extreme part of the country.
He, however, said when there are constitutional crises between and among states, such can be attended to by Federal Appeal and Supreme Courts.
Other issues raised by Salami included the need to vest the same jurisdiction in federal, state and National Industrial Courts to avoid cost of litigation and delays; stopping members of the NJC from accepting executive appointments including briefs from the executive arm of government during their tenure as well as non-participation of judges appointed to Court of Appeal and Supreme Court through Shari’a or Customary Law in Common Law and Constitutional cases.
To Salami, addressing these issues would make the make judiciary better than it is.

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