ABUJA – Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, the acting Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), on Wednesday, promised to deal with senior lawyers condemning the judiciary and making social media commentaries of court matters that are sub judice.
Kekere-Ekun said this during the Senate screening exercise ahead of her confirmation as the CJN in Abuja.
During the Senate hearing which was broadcast live by the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), lawmakers asked the CJN several questions bordering on delayed administration of justice and the inefficiencies in the judicial system, among others.
Senate President Godswill Akpabio asked Justice Kekere-Ekun whether she would tolerate the practice of Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SAN) offering commentaries and analyses on cases that were sub judice during her tenure.
Court cases that are sub judice refer to matters that are under judicial consideration and, therefore, prohibited from public discussion elsewhere.
Responding to this, the acting Kekere-Ekun said: “I want to assure you that as chairman of the Legal Practitioners’ Privileges Committee (LPPC), we will ensure that those who should be disciplined, those who are in the habit of speaking on social media, condemning the judiciary, commenting on cases that are sub judice, will not have anywhere to hide. They will be dealt with decisively.”
The acting CJN said she would focus on leveraging information technology to tackle delays in the administration of justice and judicial inefficiencies.
“I will push for all our courts to be digitised because that will solve a lot of problems. It will be easier to track cases, from filing to judgment. It will be easier to check the progress of cases,” Kekere-Ekun said.
“In the rules of court, many have obsolete provisions that delay rather than speed up the court processes. Virtual hearing will also be utilised in tackling delays in hearing.
“Apart from the digitisation of the judiciary, I will promote Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) to decongest our courts.”
While answering a question on her stance on the change of interference with the appointment of judicial officers, Kekere-Ekun said: “We will ensure that this process is more rigorous, transparent and acceptable to the people.”
Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, who was denied entry to the United States following a 2020 controversial judgement that declared Hope Uzodimma as governor of Imo State, under the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), was appointed the Chief Justice of Nigeria in August.
Kekere-Ekun, 66, who took over the reins of the Nigerian judiciary in an acting capacity from Justice Kayode Ariwoola, who clocked the mandatory retirement age of 70 in August, was recommended by the National Judicial Council (NJC) – as the judiciary chief.
The U.S. government rejected the visa application of Kekere-Ekun, who was among a panel of justices that sacked PDP’s Emeka Ihedioha from the Imo governorship seat and pronounced APC’s Hope Uzodimma winner of the hotly contested polls, according to Daily Independent.
A former governor of Cross-River State, Donald Duke also alluded to the incident in his memoir.
“Apart from the recent cases, there is another one where number four became number one, the justices that gave that judgment cannot go to the United States today because they have been denied visas,” Mr Duke said at a memoir launch in February 2023.
The former governor stressed that the jurists who intended to visit the U.S. to attend a legal conference were barred while their accompanying aides were issued visas.
“They want to go on a retreat. Their aides were given visas but they were not given. How much disgrace can we take as a nation before we say enough is enough?” Duke had said.
The decision of Mrs Kekere-Ekun’s Supreme Court that gave Imo governorship to Mr Uzodimma was widely deemed among the most controversial in the country’s apex court’s history.
A recently retired Supreme Court justice, Dattijo Muhammad, roundly criticised the court as filled with judicial bandits and bribe-takers.
Earlier in March, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC) said corruption is prevalent in the Nigerian judiciary.
A representative of the UNODC, Melissa Omene, made this assertion at a judicial accountability event in Abuja.
Speaking on a 2019 survey that was conducted by the UNODC and the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Ms Omene said the survey “found that 20 per cent of those who had contact with the Nigerian judiciary were confronted with a request for the payment of a bribe.
“Indeed, corruption in the Nigerian judiciary is extensive and both male and female judges are party to it.”
Giving a comparative analysis of the issue, a UNODC study on gender and corruption in 2020, disclosed that “male judges are far more likely to be involved in bribe-seeking conduct than their female colleagues.”
The study said corruption amongst judicial officers had eroded “public confidence in the judiciary.”
Weighing in on the quality of justice dispensation by Nigerian courts, a lawyer, Jibrin Okutepa had blamed lawyers and judges for the loss of public confidence in the judicial system.
Mr Okutepa, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and a former member of the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee (LPDC), said the country is in a moral decay.