Hardly any day passes without the news media being awash with comments on the state of the judicial sector in Nigeria. Albeit, the comments, most of which range from the sublime to the ridiculous, usually harp, even if adumbratively, on the imperative of reform in that all-important sector. If the moral conduct of judicial officers is not the issue, it is executive interference on judicial matters or the unconducive environment in which our judicial officers operate.
Added to these is the rather embarrassing insecurity in court premises across the country. Or how else can we explain a situation where a kidnap kingpin on trial in an Owerri High Court, a few months ago, could be taken away by his gun-wielding cohorts before the very eyes of security agents without much resistance? Doesn’t that say something about Nigeria’s judiciary in danger?
Only recently, the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Ibrahim Auta, alerted that Nigerian courts are overwhelmed by litigations facing judges in various judicial divisions in the country.
Speaking in a live programme on Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Justice Auta hinted that Nigeria, with over 180 million people, currently has just 1,200 judges battling with innumerable cases in state and Federal High Courts, Appeal Courts and the Supreme Court. Each judge, says the eminent jurist, handles between 500 and 700 cases in a month.
Drawing analogy with less populated countries, Justice Auta revealed that even nations in Africa and beyond with just 10 million people have over 2,000 judges in their judicial system as against Nigeria’s.
This revelation by the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court is a clear indication that Nigeria is grossly under-staffed in manpower, at all levels of the nation’s judiciary.
Central to Auta’s position is the over congestion of the nation’s dilapidated prisons which he suggests, can be settled by the appointment of more judges.
Though Auta’s stance is not new. It has become something of a jaded homily by many concerned Nigerians in the nation’s media and other fora.
Nevertheless, The Tide shares in Auta’s concern, especially against the backdrop of the fact that the judiciary, as a critical arm of government and the last hope of all in the society, deserves a pride of place in the provision of badly needed infrastructure and qualified personnel.
It needs not be over-stressed here that lack of enough judges has negatively contributed to the delay in dispensing justice so much so that even suspects involved in minor crimes languish in custody for many years for offences which, in most cases, attract only few months imprisonment or option of fine if convicted. It is probably on that note that the commonly used legal parlance that justice delayed is justice denied, sadly enough, applies more to the Nigerian situation.
In this regard, we enjoin our judges to endear themselves to quick dispensation of cases that are  not properly investigated by the Police and or other law enforcement agencies, rather than keeping suspects in prison custody, perpetually awaiting trial that may not hold.
Meanwhile, the Bar, especially lawyers handling cases, directors of litigations and public prosecution and other security apparatus have a lot to do to assist judges to speedily dispense cases before them.
Even more worrisome is the situation where only conventional courts handle virtually all civil and criminal cases, many of which linger on for long, owing more often to deliberate technical hiccups caused by the prosecution or defence team in the course of hearing such cases.
We believe that political corruption, illicit drugs, arms running, robbery, oil theft, traffic-related matters, among other cases, could be better handled by special courts.
The fact that many judges who have passed on or retired on account of age, service or ill-health have not been replaced by the relevant authorities, has put much pressure on serving judges and ipso facto, affects the nation’s judicial system negatively.
However, beyond the need for the services of more judges in the country, the Bar, the Bench and the government must work assiduously to ensure that Nigeria’s judicial system conforms with global best practices. It is only by doing this that Nigeria can earn the respect of the international community.