Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo says the appointment of judges
in Nigeria is influenced by the elite.
During a webinar tagged, ‘Selection and appointment of
judges: Lessons for Nigeria’, which was organised by Justice Research Institute
(JRI) on Saturday, Osinbajo said Nigeria’s justice administration “is under
severe pressure from the elite who want to get ahead at all cost”.
“We have an elite and when I speak of elite, I speak of the
Nigerian elite both political, religious, commercial/business etc. Everyone
wants to get ahead, we want to own things, we want to control things and we
want to own the judges too,” he said.
“The Nigerian elite want to be sure of all the outcomes and they want all the outcomes to favour them. That is the same pressure that we have with respect to the federal character.
“So the federal character is no longer necessarily seen as
choosing the best from a particular zone or a particular state; it is the
interest in that state or that zone who want to further their own purposes that
would want to come together to ensure that the person who is appointed is not
necessarily the best, but he is the one that is most suited to their own
purposes. This is the problem that we have.
“And I want to say that this is a natural human feeling.
Most people in the world would rather have a situation where everything worked
in their favour.
The vice-president said every nation makes up its mind at
some point to create the best environment and circumstances it needs to
succeed.
He said there must be a honest conversation among the legal
profession, the judiciary , the executive, the legislature and the elite on why
it is important to appoint the best judicial officers.
“If we leave it to the system that is going on at the
moment; we are clearly headed in the wrong direction because interest whether
private, political or group influences how judges are appointed,” Osinbajo
said.
“We must agree to an objective process to rigorously
examine, test and interview all of those who want to come forward as judges.”
He also said it is important to pay attention to the welfare
of judges by providing adequate remuneration in order to shield them from
corruption.
Amina Augie, a justice of the supreme court, also decried
the process of lobbying in the appointment of judicial officers.
She said: “There are people who are passionate who can do
the job but they are sidetracked by that pressure of people who know people
that have gotten there.”
She recommended that justices should be elected or elevated
not just based on the quantity of their output but on the quality of their work
as well as their personal character.
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