By Vivian Micheal, Abuja
The Body of Senior Advocates of Nigeria (BOSAN), on Thursday, expressed dissatisfaction over the method of appointment of Supreme Court Apex and Appeal court justices.
Chairman of BOSAN, Onomigbo Okpoko described the method used by the office of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, and the National Judicial Council (NJC) in the selection and appointment of Justices of the justices as “restrictive policy by the appointing authorities”.
Okpoko expressed his thoughts on behalf of Ben Nwabueze, at the valedictory court session held in honour of Justice Abdul Aboki, who retired recently from the Supreme Court.
According to him, “The Body has said it times without number and in various fora that the method of selection of the candidates for appointment of Justices in the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal is unsatisfactory in the extreme.
“The appointment process appears to have been designed and operated to exclude good and component lawyers in the legal profession from being appointed appellate courts Justices,” BOSAN stated.”
Further in his submissions, the Body of SANs, said “the appointing authority appears to have established a policy that the vacancies created by exit of Justices of Supreme Court or the Court of Appeal are to be filled by picking a candidate from the State of the vacating Justice only, notwithstanding the availability of known, better candidates readily at hand from other states or Local Government Areas in case of Judges at trial courts.
“The consequence of this policy is that by it, our nation, our citizens, foreign and local businessmen/women who use and or are expected to resort to the courts of law for resolution of their problems in Nigeria are denied the opportunity of having their cases considered and decided by Appellate Courts manned by the best legal minds the nation can produce at any time.
“This is a very sad reflection of our nation and the nation’s judiciary,” Chief Okpoko said.
Similarly, the Body of SANs faulted the policy of geographical spread in public service appointments, stressing that it is “acknowledged today, to be the foundation for the mediocrity and incompetence in some areas of the public service of our nation”.
“The risk and dangers of mediocrity and incompetence in the Nigerian judiciary is too grave to permit by the policy of replacement or exclusion.
“The theory of replacement cannot bring about the best that is in us in the legal profession,” BOSAN posited.
The group recalled that at Independence, many English and Commonwealth Judges left the country and their replacements were picked from among the best lawyers and Judges of the time, irrespective of state of origin and “heaven did not fall”.
In view of the foregoing, the Body queried the justification in excluding good, competent and available candidates from the Bar and operate the policy of replacement to be the basis for the selection and appointment of candidates to man Appellate Courts.