Chief Justice of Nigeria, Hon. Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, has assured Nigerians of her commitment to integrity and discipline.
She noted this on Wednesday during a session with the Senate, when her appointment was about to be confirmed.
She said: “I think the first thing in giving my Curriculum Vitae, I said one of the things that I’m known for is integrity. I’m also known for being strict on discipline. Therefore, in order to ensure that the integrity of the judiciary is maintained, I will ensure that the Code of Conduct is fully complied with.
“I will ensure that there is zero tolerance for corruption. We have a committee of the National Judicial Commission that deals with performance evaluation and what that does is they assess judgments delivered, how judges are performing their functions and they have regular conferences.
“What I know is that we are even making moves now to tighten that performance evaluation process so that we can, when judges submit returns, for instance, it’s not about quality or quantity. It’s also about how they carry out their responsibilities. Are they punctual? Are they upright?
“Another area for upholding the integrity of the judiciary is that there is a need also to insulate the judiciary from external influence.
“We are very grateful to His Excellency, the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, President Ahmed Bola Tinubu, and the National Assembly for passing the Bill that increased salaries of Judicial Officers.
“What is available?
Is it conducive? And so on. These are all the things that have an effect on how the judiciary performs.
On the independence of the judiciary, Kekere-Ekun said: “I know that there are a lot of complaints at the moment about the process of appointment of judicial officers.
“This is an area that I am also going to take very, very seriously. The NJC also has a committee working on this to ensure that we make the screening process rigorous, transparent, and something that the citizenry will be satisfied with when judges are appointed.
“I know that once the citizens are comfortable with the manner in which judicial officers are appointed, it makes them have more confidence in the entire system.
“I will also be encouraging or supporting improvement in our laws. So, when it comes to the independence of the judiciary, all hands have to be on deck and I look forward to working with not only the National Assembly but also the Executive to ensure that we have laws in place that enhance our independence.”
“It’s supposed to determine matters that have public policy significance, matters relating to the position of the Constitution, or matters where very rare legal issues have come up which require a pronouncement from the Supreme Court.
“As you know, the constitutional provision gives us (Supreme Court) 90 days to deliver a judgment from the date of final address. Those 90 days are spent dealing with matters of national significance as well as matters that have no significance on the national stage.
“I think all pre-election matters should terminate at the Court of Appeal. So many matters need to terminate at the Court of Appeal so that the Supreme Court can really live up to its designation as a policy court.”
She added: “I don’t believe enlarging the number of justices is the solution because the cases are so many. The backlog is tremendous. So even if we increase the number of justices.
She noted that the issue of conflicting judgments has become a matter of serious concern to the Supreme Court, saying there would be strict consequences for infractions during her tenure.
Kekere-Ekun said: “Now we have what is known as the doctrine of stare decisis where a lower court is expected to follow the decision of a higher court. Where it is shown that a judicial officer deliberately fails to follow that doctrine, there will be strict consequences.
“Also, it is necessary because there are so many complaints about conflicting judgments that where these conflicting judgments occur, there will be a need to have committees that will look into them and see how the court can take a position.
“Only the proper procedure will take place. The court cannot sit on appeal over its own decisions. But where these matters arise, the court’s attention will be brought to them and they will be dealt with speedily.
“In the Supreme Court, for instance, where the court’s attention is drawn to any of such matters, those matters will be fixed expeditiously so that those issues can be resolved. We know that it is a serious problem.”
