Day 3 of the Annual Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association’s Section on Public Interest and Development Law (NBA-SPIDEL) in Ikeja, Lagos featured a trio of panel sessions, the first two of which hewed closely to the theme of the Conference, namely, the role of the Judiciary in ensuring electoral integrity and desired outcomes.
NEWSWIRE Law and Events Magazine’s correspondent at The Citadel venue of the event reports that the first session of the day was chaired by the immediate past President of the NBA, Olumide Akpata, and featured such personalities like Gilbert Tor (from the National Judicial Institute, NJI); Daberechi Ekejiuba (President, Progressive Abia Youth); Ekine Stronghold (National Coordinator, Exalt Nigeria); Samson Itodo (Executive Director at Yiaga Africa) and the renowned economist, Prof. Pat Utomi (founder of the Centre for Values & Leadership) who participated virtually.
The panel was assembled to consider the topic, ‘The 2023 Nigerian Elections and Lessons from the Field: Will the Judiciary Save the Day?’
In its present state, the panelists unanimously agreed, the Judiciary is as incapable as any other national institution of making a significant difference.
One reason for this, they maintained, was the Constitution and the obstacles it places in the path of judicial autonomy and independence.
Another, as Gabriel Tor said in his contribution, is the quality of judicial personnel in terms of merit and professional ethics.
On the elections, Tor had a few questions (loose ends, he called them) which he believed the electoral system did not adequately address prior to the 2023 elections: Was there really an independent electoral administrator? Was there effective voter education? Was an effective election dispute and conflict resolution mechanism put in place? What of media and information integrity?
The panel also raised the vexed issue of lawyers transitioning directly from private practice to the Supreme Court as Justices – an issue which does obtain in some other jurisdictions, but which has gained no traction whatsoever in Nigeria, and has faced tremendous pushback, not least from incumbent Judges and Justices themselves. As Akpata noted, the infusion of top legal talent at the apex bar would go a long way to improve the quality of that institution. But he acknowledged also that there is much disagreement between the Bench and the Bar on this and other salient matters.
Also weighing in on the issue of judicial competence, Ekejiuba called on the National Judicial Council, in determining who becomes a Judge or Justice, to emphasize track record of performance, rather than years of service. On the question of whether the Judiciary can save our democracy (and in particular the integrity of our electoral process), he was of the opinion that what is needed is an activist Judiciary – which can shut the courts if necessary to drive home its demands!
Another group that should have an activist disposition, in the view of Ekine Stronghold, is the electorate. Members of the political class do whatever they like at the expense of the people because they know they can get away with it. Until the people become a threat to the political class, he said, our democracy will remain a hollow one.
The session also featured a brief intervention by Rotimi Ogunyemi, a lawyer with extensive expertise in the tech space, as he explained the digital aspect of the 5-step electoral value chain – enrollment, authentication, actual voting, collation and transmission. Ogunyemi noted that while the first two and last steps are digital, the third and fourth are manual. In such a hybrid electoral environment, he said, the Judiciary has no choice but to adopt a digital mindset.
In his summation, panel chair Akpata noted the rapid erosion of trust in the Judiciary on the part of the Nigerian people – citing the violence towards court houses during the #EndSARS protest, and the recent interview by no less than former NBA President, Dr. Olisa Agbakoba, SAN, in which he expressed his disillusionment with the Judiciary – and called on the third arm of government to redeem itself urgently, before it is consigned to the realm of irrelevance, with devastating consequences for society as a whole.
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