Appointment of Judges Not Family Affair, CSOs Tell NJC

Of particular concern from the complaints of the Learned Silks was the attempt by Governor Yahaya Bello to appoint his wife as a judge of the Kogi State High Court.

Four civil rights organizations operating as Open Justice Alliance has called on Nigerian judiciary to consider merit and transparency in the regulation of its processes for the recruitment of judges in the country.

According to them, a situation where people with family ties and allies to senior Justices were being appointed as judges does not augur well with the judiciary.

The Team Lead of OJA, Nelson Olanipekun, in a statement said the advice became necessary following the two separate letters issued from the Court of Appeal and the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory in Abuja, that vacancies currently exist in the respective courts for which suitably qualified candidates were invited to submit their Expressions of Interest.

He commended the heads of the courts for putting federal character above ethnic consideration by specifying the regions and/or states to which the vacancies relate.

Olanipekun however said the organisations were constrained to urge that the Nigerian Judiciary must strive against all odds to allow merit and transparency to regulate its recruitment process.

This, according to him, is to forestall a repeat of the “embarrassing situation in Kogi State, where about seven (7) Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs) recently took the National Judicial Council (NJC) and others to court in suit No: FCT/ABJ/CS/05/2024 over what the Learned Silks had described as a gross violation of the regulations and constitutional principles of fairness, equity, and merit.”

Olanipekun said, “Of particular concern from the complaints of the Learned Silks was the attempt by Governor Yahaya Bello to appoint his wife as a judge of the Kogi State High Court, even though the wife clearly lacked the requisite qualifications and experience for the position. Also, we noticed that people with family ties and allies to senior Justices are being appointed as judges in the Judiciary.

“The Judiciary must be independent and be seen as independent. The stakeholders involved in the recruitment process must, therefore, eschew elements like ethnicity, family ties and political interference, which oftentimes taint the selection process and, in their place, disallow merit and transparency to reign supreme.

“Doing so will, in no small measure, impact positively on the already battered image of the Judiciary. It is our hope that this selection process will restore hope and confidence in our judicial appointment process.”