The nomination of 22 justices for Supreme Court appointment has stirred controversy within the judiciary.
Senior serving and retired justices find themselves at odds over the list released by the Federal Judicial Service Commission (FJSC) last Thursday.
Expressing concern, a senior Justice shared with Vanguard that President Bola Tinubu’s approach might lead to a direct confrontation with a broader section of senior members of the Nigerian bench. They emphasized that the appointment of Supreme Court justices has never been so heavily politicized in Nigeria’s history.
Adding to the discontent, another Justice highlighted the contentious case of the North-Central zone. Here, the son of a former Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) was prioritized, while a senior jurist with over 15 years of experience in the Court of Appeal was placed as a reserve, fueling further controversy.
The Justice added that the strangest of the ongoing process is that “the South-South slot where the person adjudged as the very best is curiously pencilled as reserve.
Sources said that during the processing phase, the Justice placed as priority was not short-listed among the four that were sent to the FJSC.
“The question many in the Judicial circle are asking is: how did someone who did not make the short-list suddenly emerge as priority over and above the person adjudged to be the best,” the source asked.
The source disclosed that for the South-South, the Justice placed as reserve now was the priority candidate in 2019 but was dropped then because he was considered to be too young at 53, adding: “How did he suddenly drop four years after when he has been rated so highly? Anyone who wants to check the quality of the Justices can go to the Law Pavilion, which is the electronic law report and see which Justice of the Court Appeal has the highest ratio. The person placed as reserve has the highest ratio.”
In the North-West, some Justices wondered how Justice AB Gumel was dropped from the list “despite being the number one on the list of jurists from his zone.”
In the South-West, the source said a justice who was a reserve candidate in 2019 is still on the reserve list while a justice who had never made the short-list was placed as priority.
If not urgently addressed, some senior members of the Nigerian Judiciary feared that the low morale and rancour in the Judiciary would worsen.
But a renowned academic and a respected member of the inner bar, Prof Yemi Akinseye George, SAN applauded the FJSC’s list that became a public knowledge last Thursday.
He said it is though possible for human error to have filtered into the list, he nonetheless said he could score the list 99.9%.
“When I saw the list of those justices, I felt very proud. I have appeared before many of those justices and I have worked with many of those justices at different committee levels, you know. So, they are excellent names. Most of those names are excellent names. It is possible that one or two may have entered the list, but I dont know, but from what I can see and my interaction with those names, they are excellent justices of the appellate court who merit being in the Supreme Court,” he said.
The silk also said he was comfortable that no candidate from both legal practice and academia made the list, saying any legal practitioner who wants to become a justice of the Supreme Court should start from the high court.
He said Justice Niki Tobi who was a Professor of Law from the academia did not start at the Supreme Court and that he did very well.
He also said many legal practitioners nowadays are party goers with a lot of friends and clients everywhere with love for money, qualities he claimed are antithetical to what should be found in a judge.
