Judiciary – Independent Newspaper Nigeria

Dr. Bolaji O. Akinyemi, an Apostle of fine governance, is the Convener, Apostolic Spherical Desk (ART), in addition to Chairman, Board of Trustees (BoT), Venture Victory Name Initiative, aka PVC Naija. On this open letter to President Bola Tinubu, written completely for Sunday Unbiased, he focuses on the rot within the Judiciary. Excerpt

Mr. President, sir,

There are urgent political is­sues, such because the transmutation of the tenth Joint Nationwide As­sembly into the eleventh Meeting by the President and Commander in Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It was a joke taken too far! The bastardisation of our democracy earlier than the world. No matter your intention was, was wrongly served by that ut­terance.

“Se a o ni kan idin ninu iyo” positive we aren’t set to locate maggots within the salt of our democ­racy? Farotimi has turn out to be the “disagreeable odour” oozing out of our deodorised corruption. The celebrity of unsolicited proof of a defamation pending earlier than our court docket of Justice.

Sir, the newest addition to the voices in settlement to the rot within the judiciary and endorsement of how unhealthy it’s with our Judi­ciary got here from one who fought from the within!

Justice Amina Augie, CON, former Justice of the Supreme Court docket of Nigeria, on a panel in a video that has gone viral, she recounted her expertise with conflict towards corruption within the judiciary. I hope it’s not finger pointing or an indictment of us, on your Lagos, my Lagos and our Lagos was the height of how unhealthy it was for her in her profession and the way daring and daring the judiciary ca­bal in Lagos was!

Her narration right here: “Get right here, put these items proper, subsequent sta­tion, the subsequent September, I moved the case for one more division. I used to be presiding, backwards and forwards. Then, I ended up in Lagos. In all these different divisions, as a result of you understand, properly Nigerians are very, superb at assessing their bosses.

“, they’ve, when you’re going to work this fashion, they wish to do it, if you wish to go straight, they go straight with you so long as they know that you simply’re straight! If you wish to go like this, (crooked or beneath­approach, gesticulating along with her proper hand), as soon as they see that you simply wish to go like that, they’ll even go, you might do it one yard, they’ll do 10 miles, relying on you. However as soon as they wish to do it, when you understand you must do it, they’ll.

“So my repute would pre­cede me, I might say. So, each­physique would behave themselves as soon as up there, as a result of the primary folks I handled are these in my workplace. You mess up, I take care of you! That’s once they re­alised, oh, if she will be able to contact her private workers, OK, all people behaved”.

In all different divisions, the ‘Mar­gret Thatcher’ in her was hon­oured and revered, nevertheless it wasn’t so in Lagos! Learn her account of our State of Excellence: “Then I bought to Lagos. After a number of months of making an attempt to place the place togeth­er, they despatched me a message that they need to inform me, that if I believe that I can come and contact them right here, I’m joking, they’ll present me that they’re, anyway, they despatched me a message threatening me about some months after I bought there. And I saved telling the story of how I checked out myself that 12 months, the primary day of Rama­dan of 2013.

And I’m like, they’re threaten­ing me. And you understand, I used to be like, what do I do? What, you understand, whenever you’re so used to folks obeying and doing that, then someone decides to take you on.

I imply, you would think about how I used to be thrown in my chair, what do I do? Fortuitously, the presiding Choose on the PCA, Hon­orable Justice Bulkachuwa, was on the town. And he or she left a message that I used to be the one one who may see her. So, I went to see her and directed the entire, what you name it, I used to be having along with her. And the risk they’d given me, I known as the folks, I took the registrar, DCR who advised her precisely what was going to occur. And what I’m making an attempt is that after I spoke to her and all that,

I went again to my chambers.

One factor they don’t let you know about civil providers, so long as it’s not in writing, no one goes to do something about something. And we don’t report. No person needs to be the one to bell the cart, to truly put issues in writing to complain, I suppose this, that or the opposite.”

Our perils stream from two jinxes, of a folks, who don’t wish to report public servants and political appointees in writing to authority, nor wish to learn what’s written concerning the authority within the public for consideration and mandatory motion!

The Hon. Justice broke the jinx! “I went again to my cham­bers, I requested all of the workers, my workers, and the way, I imply, you’d like, who and who in what de­partment, how lengthy have you ever been there? The registry, the place they despatched me this message, was how I found that about 20 of them had been within the registry for 36 years!

Are you aware what, to be in registry for 36 years, they’re altering Jeeps, they’re chang­ing all the things, as a result of once we are speaking of the judiciary, all people appears on the judges, they have a look at the judicial officers, they neglect the workers that runs the entire place, that the legal professionals should file papers, that the pa­pers have to come back to the desk, all the things needs to be performed earlier than we come to take a seat in court docket.

So, they blame the court docket, they blame the judges, they blame ev­erybody with out trying on the workers that should run the place to place issues collectively earlier than these information are put there.”

So, I had a system the place, are you able to think about a younger lawyer who had met a younger registry workers, within the registry the place you file your papers? 36 years later, they’re SANs, they’ve turn out to be massive males, and these individuals are nonetheless seated there! So, when they need a case to go on, they know the right way to do it. For those who don’t need a case to go on, they’ll simply cover the file, or the papers are usually not there.

Now, we’re overworked. I am going into court docket, you have got a Course Listing of about, what number of instances to do?

Once they let you know, what about it? My Lord, I’ve an applica­tion, the place is it? It’s not within the file. Why is it not within the file? Bai­liffs haven’t served, or if they’ve served.

Oh, we are able to’t discover it. What will we do? We’re overworked. It’s a case of, take an adjournment. An adjournment can take you an­different two years! And what has occurred?

One among your legal professionals on the opposite aspect has bribed the workers there to take away the method in order that you’ll get that matter performed. Anyway, to chop a protracted story brief, I now hooked up all of it on notes. SOS, that my registry had as at the moment, collapsed. That is what has occurred. They’ve been working there. They don’t have any digital sense.

That is the scenario, 23 folks have labored for 36 years in that place! 20 folks for 34 years; 20, from all of them, about 100 and one thing had been working there for between 20 and 34 years within the registry!

So, I despatched out this, I wrote this factor, I touched all the things, and wrote. The PCA acted on it. And earlier than you knew it, 16 of them had been, you understand, moved from Lagos to Yola, to Ilorin, to Gombe, to wherever. They had been now thrown out.

So, I later noticed the Head of Admin and requested him, how do you know the 16 folks that you simply eliminated? He mentioned, we’ve at all times recognized them. We’ve al­methods recognized their ring lead­ers, however they’d Godfathers. You couldn’t have reported it. However because you had now put it in writing like that, they’d one thing to behave on. They’d one thing to behave on, and we all know them so that they now threw all of them out!

Now, these 16, all of them had Godfathers. I suppose what hap­pened, someone talked about ladies as we speak. I used to be presiding in Lagos. Justice Bulkachuwa, was the President of the Court docket of Enchantment (PCA), Justice Aloma Mukthar was CJN!

Their Godfathers had been now rendered, what’s the phrase, im­potent! It was what? Oh. Admin’s like, who was going to fight? They moved. what they known as moved? And all of them, they’ve Godfathers, so known as Godfathers, yeah? Justice Agui, me to go and meet her? So that’s what they name, “Magana yakare”, the tip of it, earlier than you understand it, all people had adopted in line! How do you know the 16, they knew them. And so they mentioned in addition they knew the ring leaders, And that sure, those that had been being misled discovered their approach again.

And a 12 months later, come and see all this report by some I imply, I see all of them in my home, the bus load that got here for the naming ceremony. I mentioned, huh! I keep in mind telling the buddy, a 12 months in the past, they mentioned they needed to kill me.

He mentioned, what do you imply they needed to kill you, you’re the one who got here right here to destabi­lise all their enterprise and each­factor. After which after a while, once they found that, properly, if they’ll’t kill you, they could as properly be part of you to do issues.

So, we’re great peo­ple. Any of you who’ve ever needed to work with workers which can be hard-working, they know what to do and all the things, all of it comes from management. All of it comes from, allow us to do the correct factor. It comes from standing up. Once they have a look at you and know we have now to do the correct factor.

And be capable to report it, to have the ability to take the civil service guidelines and act upon it.

But when I and my registrar de­cided to start out earning money, bail cash, like I advised someone, to­day your registrar involves you and say, Amina, how now? What does that imply?

They’re already telling you that me and you might be in that busi­ness, but when I respect myself, how dare you come to me to speak like that? Anyway, the underside line, like all of us are going to say, for reforms to occur, we have to have a paradigm shift.

We’d like to have the ability to prepare our folks. And I nonetheless preserve speaking concerning the judicial justice sec­tor. We have to have specialised faculties. Judicial schools, similar to you have got TV schools. We have to have folks which can be from secondary college, you understand, like you have got Lab know-how; you have got all these issues that we’re going to go to the judicial sector. We’re going to be skilled in whichever approach it’s to have the ability to do this.

For now, too many Godfa­thers put in those that don’t match into the place we’re having. We’ve spherical pegs in sq. holes! After which I additionally wish to let you know, after which I spherical up on that sector.