…says Lagos more favoured in southwest, Adamawa neglected in northeast for 40years
A civil. society organisation, Justice and Equity Movement and senior lawyers in the country have called on the National Judicial Council, NJC, to consider merit and also the tradition of the Court of an unwritten code in the appointment of 11 Supreme Court justices.
Already, the process of appointing justices to fill the 11 vacant positions on the Supreme Court Bench has begun.
The Federal Judicial Service Commission, FJSC, nominated 22 justices out of which 11 will be selected.
According to the tradition of an unwritten code that has been existing in the court in selecting the justices, it is expected that three justices are selected from each region to cover the six geo-political zones in the country for equal representation.
Executive Director of the movement, Barrister Alfred C. Basil, said while some states have taken several slots to have representation at the apex court bench, some have not been represented for several years.
He gave particular example of Southwest and Adamawa state in the Northeast that has not had representation in the court in the last 40years.
He however, applauded the leadership of the judiciary in the country for the nominations of the southeast justices.
He said the nominees from the southeast are from different states which is commendable.
According to him, in the Southwest, one of the nominees is from Lagos state while a Justice from Lagos is still serving on the bench of the court.
To him, in the case of Northeast, the unwritten code rule should apply because Adamawa state was last represented on the bench of the court about 40years ago when it used to be Gongola state.
He said the state was last represented between 1979 and 1983 when Justice Buba Ardo was appointed and since then, no one has been appointed from the state.
He said at the moment, Bauchi and Gombe have representatives in the court and same for both Borno and Yobe, only Adamawa have been neglected for many years in the region.
He said states that have competent persons should be considered instead of allocating two slots to a particular state.
“Adamawa state has been left out for a long time on the Supreme Court Bench without a representative. In less than 10 years, the Northeast has produced two Chief Justices of Nigeria.
“Justice Mahmud Mohammed from Taraba state retired as CJN in 2016 and Justice Tanko Mohammad from Bauchi state spent 16years on the bench of the Court before he retired last year as CJN.
“But a state like Adamawa has not had representation in the court for 40years. Fairness, justice and equity demand that a judge from Adamawa state should be given the opportunity to serve on the bench of the apex court.
“Lagos should not have two representatives because only Lagos does not make up the southwest. Justice and equity demand that other states in the region should be given the chance to have representation”, he said.
He said the issue of the Northwest is also very serious and should be look into very well.
He gave an instance of two Justices, one retired and the other still serving from Katsina, who was also replaced by a judge from the same state after dropping a judge from Jigawa state recommeded for appointment to the apex court..
To him, that is the height of Injustice for the Northwest zone
Also, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Dr Ahmed Raji, said merit should be considered but however, admitted that there is an unwitten code in the selection of the justices
According to him, there is an unwritten code that each region should have three representatives on the Apex Court Bench.
Dr Raji said, “Each region has three justices. There is an unwritten code in the selection of Supreme Court Justices that each region should have three representatives on the bench.”
A constitutional, lawyer, Barrister Paul Omoluabi, said said each region should be well represented.
He called on the NJC to balance the appointment by giving states that have been denied representation opportunity to serve.
He said, “Basically, it is the duty of the NJC to search for the CVs of those that are qualified and also look at their political zones and in considering geo-political zones, each region should be well represented because of the peculiarity of the country we are, all of them cannot come from one zone.
“If we have all the justices from one zone, it doesn’t really matter because we are trained to be lawyers but because they are human and can easily be influenced by where they come from, we should find a way to balance it.”