It does not look really great. If you have a non-political case that needs the attention of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, it is possible you may not get a date before Jan 1 2023. The apex court is overbooked and over-congested. If that is the case, it means the Supreme Court of Nigeria is simply now the Supreme Court of Political Matters Nigeria since only political cases get accelerated access to the justices.
I am a layman, and certainly know nothing about law other than to stay out of trouble. That way, I do not need to know the law! But if I see the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad, I will tell him this:
- Create 6 regional Supreme Courts in the 6 geopolitical zones to try non-political cases at the level of Supreme courts in their jurisdiction. Each of these courts will have only 3 justices.
- The ultimate apex Supreme Court in Abuja will focus on political matters and generation-shaping cases. All cases would first arrive from the Appeal Court to the ultimate Supreme Court in Abuja which can decide to punt to the regional ones. Once that decision is made, the finality of the decision will be decided at the regional level.
People, with extra 18 justices, our legal system at the supreme level will improve to serve the frictions in the marketplace. The Nigerian parliament can amend the Constitution to allow this ordinance to become part of our system.
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A brilliant suggestion. I agree with you on this, sir.
Even the constitutionally allowed number of Supreme Court Justices, we have been unable to fill it; apparently there’s no money to fund it or we haven’t seen enough good-looking and loyal justices to send there…
We have essentially turned Nigeria into a Political State, and the Judiciary – a Political Judiciary. Time to remind ourselves that there’s still life outside our crude politics, we cannot afford to live our entire life in that quagmire.
It’s becoming clearer that we never prepared for challenges of Democracy, our struggles are too many, yet helplessness is on the increase.
To experience anything close to efficiency in democracy, you must posses super capabilities at scale; it’s the most sophisticated and complex system of government, certainly not for people who lack basic managerial and organisational skills.
This thing is just too overwhelming for us, we were not told it would be this complicated; now see our struggles…