Nigerian Judicial System gets a Failing Grade

[Richard Akindele]

Femi Falana, a lawyer practising in Lagos and a veteran of several detentions, run-ins and harrassment under military rule, is a well-known human rights activist

Views will undoubtedly be expressed that you're rubbishing the Nigerian Judiciary and legal system abroad

I would not think so. I think what is going on around the world is for victims of human rights violations in their own countries to go abroad, where they consider their own government to be very weak or their own system to be very weak, to give them redress.

And I think that was started in 1995 by the case of (General Agusto) Pinoche, when he was arrested in London. Presently, the African countries, the AU (African Union) has a problem with Hasne Habre the former Chadian President, whose arrest has been ordered by a Belgian court. He is presently in Senegal, in detention, awaiting extradition to Belgium. But African leaders are saying it will be embarrassing if he has to be deported to Belgium. For that reason, the AU has set up a committee of experts to look for a country that will be ready to have him tried in Africa.

So, I think it's a new development that is going on and cases like this are going to challenge our own government to provide redress for their own citizens.

You are saying essentially that the Nigeria Judicial system is weak?

The Nigerian Judiciary is weak to absorb cases of this nature, for now.

You also said that the Nigerian Judiciary is only independent on paper?

The Nigerian Judiciary is independent formally, as far as the Constitution is concerned. But if you look at the mode of appointment of judges whereby they have to be appointed by the president and the governors, and if you look at their condition of service, you will agree with me that the Nigerian Judiciary cannot be said to be independent.

For instance, there was a state - Ekiti, where the governor rushed to the House of Assembly - controlled by the political party - to get a resolution of the House to enable him suspend the Chief Judge of the state at any time! That does not make room for the independence of the Judiciary.

In many cases where Chief Judges have been appointed, governors have appointed their cronies, and that is not in accordance with the independence of the Judiciary. A country where the Chief Justice can come out to condemn the government for choosing and picking which orders of court to obey, usually cannot talk of independence of the Judiciary!

You've also said that there's no noticeable improvement in the Nigerian Judiciary under the military and now

I said there is no noticeable improvement between what you had under the military and under the Obasanjo regime, because - and this is my opinion - what operates in Nigeria today is a pseudo-democratic government, it is not a democratic government! It's civil rule without democracy.

Essentially, you've given the Nigerian legal system a fail mark?

There's a lot to be done to improve the Nigerian legal system and bring it up to date, in terms of giving justice to the citizens. In fairness to the government, the whole essence of setting up the Oputa Commission of Enquiry was to give redress to plaintiffs like this. You know what happened at the end of the day! The government developed a crisis, in terms of implementing the recommendations of the panel. We were waiting to have the recommendations implemented, and in the absence of implementation, those who can go to court in other countries - and many Nigerians are going to be encouraged to do that, the Ogoni case is going on in the US here.

As a Nigeria lawyer, testifying abroad that essentially your legal system is weak, could it not be seen as washing your dirty linen in public?

I don't think it's about washing dirty linen in public. There is nothing new that has been said here today that is not known to the judge. When we referred to the Saro Wiwa case which is going on in the US, the judge said, 'I'm aware of it'.

Source: This Day.