Following speculations of an ineffective judicial system, an overhaul of the judiciary has been proposed by prominent legal figures. Mr. Femi Falana, SAN, Executive Director of Access to Justice; Human rights lawyers Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN; Founder of Prisoners Rehabilitation and Welfare Action, PRAWA, Dr. Uju Agomoh; Executive Director of Access to Justice, Mr. Joseph Otteh were amongst those who ignited a call for reform.
They took this decision on Wednesday while participating as speakers in the NBA Section on Public Interest and Development Law, SPIDEL, at the ongoing NBA Annual Conference being held in Lagos.
Dr. Monday Ubani, Chairman of NBA-SPIDEL, presided over the program.
The speakers pointed out several problems that work against efficient justice delivery, including the process for choosing judges, the delayed embrace of innovation, out-of-date statutes, congested registries, expensive filing procedures, and corruption.
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Chief Ozekhome, SAN said in his speech that it is unfortunate that court rulings have lost all of their value because of the challenges in carrying them out.
He suggested a complete jettison of the Sheriff and Civil Processes Act, which makes the Attorney-General responsible for approving the government’s payment of judgment debt.
Additionally, Ozekhome advised hiring private individuals to carry out judgment execution and allocating funds from the federal and state budgets to pay off judgment debt.
‘‘There is need for total reform of the our justice system. What we have today is a mess and is not working. What is the use of a judgment when it cannot be enforced? We need to perhaps have an enable law that will allow private persons to enforce court judgment since the courts appear helpless in enforcing the judgments. The Sheriff and Civil Processes Act should be scrapped. Both the Federal and State governments should also begin to make budgetory provision for payment of judgment debts,’’he said.
Dr. Agomoh, who also spoke, decried the overcrowding in prisons from around nation and slammed lawyers for not employing a provision in the Correctional Homes Act of 2019 to tackle the issues.
‘‘We violate the law that we have created. Section 2, sub-sections one to the end have given the controllers of the Correctional homes the right to take action when the homes are about to be filled to capacity and yet no action has been taken. Lawyers also are not helping matter by not engaging the law to decongest the prison,’’ she said.
Mr. Otteh urged for the adoption of advanced technologies in court management as well as a detailed and thorough assessment of the Nigerian judicial appointment process.
‘’We are still paper driven which is labour intensive and we are not prepared enough for another pandemic. We must adopt innovations. A situation where judges are transferred and the cases in their courts started de novo is unacceptable.’’
‘‘We must question the appointment process of our judges because the kind of judges in a judiciary ultimately affect the quality of judgment.’’
‘‘Our judges really fail to exercise the courage they need to display when they face challenges like impunity from the state. If the judiciary cannot faithfully exercise their authority, the judiciary will be undermined.’’
For a working legal system the fore legal figure has to appeal to the judiciary for a complete reform of the system in order to ensure that the system is working effectively.