No more Supreme Court justices from the Bar, Says CJN

Appointment of Supreme Court justices from the Bar has to be barred henceforth, says the chief justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Ibrahim Mohammad,

Speaking in Abuja at this year’s edition of the annual conference of the justices of the Court of Appeal, the CJN explained that priority must always be given to career judges and justices in such appointments, thereby putting a clog to the possibility of considering practicing lawyers for assuming positions as Supreme Court justices.

He said there are problems in appointing judges to the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court from the Bar, adding that he was not, by his position, denigrating practising lawyers, but that it would be an act of injustice against career judges and Justices who have committed years to the Bench and have no other alternatives the way practicing lawyers do.

The CJN’s position tends to reverse earlier plans by former CJN, Walter Onnoghen to appoint some senior advocates of Nigeria (SANs) to the Supreme Court.

“I wouldn’t want to say much on the process of selecting Justices from the Court of Appeal to the Supreme Court. But one thing on which I am positively assuring you, although there is a lot of pressure, is that we will retain the old regime.

“Those of us who passed through the Court of Appeal spent a number of years in the Court of Appeal, and we had a lot of experience and created a lot of relationship in the Court of Appeal. We will feel slighted if we are made to take anybody straight from outside.

“I don’t know. There are a lot of calls, a lot of insistence that we should take a look at the process we currently use in appointment to the Supreme Court and that we should not concentrate on the Court of Appeal alone. I say no.

“But, maybe it is because I am biased; because I am a son of the Court of Appeal, and I know the number of years that I spent in the Court of Appeal. And I know the experiences I gathered in the Court of Appeal. I know the number of Justices that I met and made friends with in the Court of Appeal, and we still telephone each other till today,” the CJN said.

“This is somebody who has followed through the line. For example, myself. I started as a Magistrate Grade II. Going down the ladder, I wouldn’t want the authority to forget those of us who have been around.

“You grew up from the magistracy, rising through the ranks, and then they say we are not taking candidates for the Supreme Court from the Court of Appeal; we are taking from among the practising lawyer.

“A practising lawyer may have a lot of openings. Tell me: what are your openings? What is the way forward for you? Please, let’s put our heads together. Don’t entertain that kind of thing.

“As far as I am concerned, the Supreme Court is the last stage. Anyone of us who grew up with the system and has continued to grow, why stagnate him? We know that it is not everyone of us will get to the Supreme Court. That is destiny.

At the end of its meeting on October 23, 2019, the National Judicial Council (NJC) had recommended the appointment of four Justices to the Supreme Court from the Court of Appeal.  Those being considered include Justices Adamu Jauro (Northeast), Emmanuel Agim (Southsouth), C. Oseji (Southeast) and Helen Ogunwumiju (Southwest).