A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and former Commissioner for Justice and Attorney General of Rivers State, Barinua Moses Wifa, has advocated financial autonomy for the judiciary in order to guarantee its independence.
Wifa who stated this during a chat with newsmen at an event to mark his 83rd birthday in Port Harcourt, said it did not make any sense for the judicial arm of government to be at the mercy of the executive for its finances.
The legal luminary explained that the judiciary ought to be the strongest arm of government, but regretted that by some contraption, the system had made the judiciary the weaker partner.
“My view about this from time has been that not only do you need it as a first line charge, you need a certain amount. There are three department of states, not arms of government. The executive, the legislature and the judiciary.
“The judiciary ought to always be the strongest, but by some contrivance, constitutional, political contrivance they make the judiciary the weaker partner in this arrangement. Otherwise the judiciary should have about a third of the revenue net distributable income of the economy of the federation to manage its affairs as a first line charge,” he explained.
Wifa also called for stronger institutions to address delay in the administration of criminal justice system in Nigeria, pointing out that for this to happen, the judiciary must be well funded and managed by men of integrity.
“We need to build strong institutions. And you need money and people of integrity to build strong institutions. Is Nigeria ready to build strong institutions, provide the money and try and source for men of integrity?
“You know how many persons are in custody awaiting trial? They can’t just walk out there. Cases have to be filed in Court and those cases in court have to be prosecuted. You need men, you need buildings, you need all of these things to move the criminal justice forward,” Wifa stated.
On local government autonomy, the former Attorney-General of the State and Commissioner for Justice stated that it would be a breach of the Constitution if the Federal Government goes ahead to release monthly allocation to local governments accounts by by-passing State Governments.
While saying he supports autonomy of local governments, the legal luminary, however, advised the federal government to amend the constitution before implementing the policy.
“Section 162, sub-section 6 are there. They tied the revenue of local governments to that of states. Unless you cut that umbilical cord so that you free those funds, it would be unconstitutional to now say okay go there, just go there and collect your money.
It is not right.
“Even by what they call executive order, they cannot amend the constitution by executive order. It is very simple. Go and amend the constitution,” he said.

Dennis Naku