True to its promise as contained in the 108th meeting, the National Judicial Council (NJC) has released the names of 80 candidates shortlisted to be appointed as Judicial Officers in superior courts across the country for public scrutiny. But even the arrangement and the way it will work has drawn flak from some stakeholders who fear that it may go the way of other policies before it.
Former chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) who has been at the forefront of criticising the appointment of judges in Nigeria, Prof Chidi Odinkalu, reacting to the news from NJC beliefs that the council may not have the will power, and wherewithal to handle the deluge of information it will receive from Nigerians.
In a statement released by Ahmed Saleh Secretary of the NJC announced that all judicial appointment memoranda—previously received from various Judicial Service Commissions and pending before the Council—will now be published at the initial stage as part of comprehensive reforms in the judicial appointment process.
The list includes two candidates for the position of Chief Judge in Ekiti State and 78 other nominees for positions as Judges of High Courts (53), Kadis of Sharia Courts of Appeal (20), and Judges of Customary Courts of Appeal (7) across nine states including Cross River, Delta, Kano, Katsina, Niger, Ogun, Plateau, Zamfara, and Ebonyi.
In line with the new transparency initiative, the NJC has invited public participation in the vetting process, requesting written comments on the candidates’ integrity, reputation, and suitability for judicial appointment within fourteen days. “Each complaint or comment must be specific and supported with sufficient particulars,” the statement noted, adding that submissions must be accompanied by a verifying affidavit deposed before a Superior Court of Nigeria or any Notary Public.
Reacting to the statement by NJC, Prof Odinkalu on his Twitter handle stated:
“There are some issues that NJC must address. Firstly, the announcement does not disclose what will follow at the end of the 14 days. People who don’t have a credible assurance as to how information that they provide will be handled, are unlikely to respond with enthusiasm;
Secondly, it’s not clear that NJC has the capacity to credibly handle or process a possible deluge of “OpenSource” information of the kind it is asking for in the digital age. While the intention may be good, the process needs to be more carefully thought through if it’s to help;
Thirdly, previous experience lends credence to these. It was a requirement until now that the Council had to invite feedback on appointment rounds from the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA). In most of the appointments in the tenure of the immediate past Chief Justices, nothing was done with the comments from NBA;
Indeed, in one particular round of appointments into a popular High Court in the country in the past two years, the request to NBA went out as the process formally closed. Then the responses as well as the applications of candidates who were not insiders went into the bin;
As it turned out, the “slots” had all been allocated to the sons, daughters, wives and relatives of some “owners of the judiciary” and the process of inviting NBA to comment was a cover for affording a figleaf of legitimacy to brazen looting of judicial appointments;
What needs to change is more than just inviting the public to send comments to NJC with no indication as to what happens next. If NJC wants to be taken seriously, it needs to show a capacity to process what it’ll get and the will to assure that what it gets will matter”, he concluded.
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