A group of civil society organizations (CSOs) and campaigners has expressed intense worry over what they called dwindling integrity of the nation’s judiciary under the watch of Chief Justice Olukayode Ariwoola.
The group in a letter addressed to the CJN, dated March 28, 2024, cited reinstatement of two judges— Justice Gladys Olotu and Justice Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia, CJN’s alleged unresponsiveness to allegations bordering on judicial integrity and improper use of his influence to promote appointments of family members into judicial and administrative positions, as some of the reasons for their concern.
It would be recalled that Justice Gladys Olotu was indeed compulsorily retired in 2014 for grievous misconduct by former President Buhari, following a recommendation by the NJC while Justice Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia was dismissed in 2018, after the NJC found that she had received monies from several persons and corporations using corporate accounts.
According to the group, “It is conceded that these Judges won lawsuits for their reinstatement, but the judgments they got faulted the procedure of their removal and not the substantive merits of the case brought against them.
“Given the overarching importance of upholding public trust in the judicial process, it is hugely disappointing that the NJC chose to not do more to vindicate and reinforce its original determinations against the two Judges. The Council could, for instance, have appealed the judgments and waited for a final opinion on the legality of its decision; or, given that no statute of limitation prevented it from reexercising its disciplinary procedures against them, re-commenced proceedings to hold them ultimately accountable, ensuring they are not anymore in a position to harm the fragile image of the Judiciary.
“The NJC’s “surrender” to these Judges, counting the options available to it, is, in our respectful view, a profound demonstration of its lack of commitment to the institutional standing and reputation of the Judiciary and the Council’s ineffectiveness as an oversight body,” the group maintained.
The group also recalled that prior to the recent appointment of justices of the Supreme Court, one of the organisations on the group made representation to the group to investigate allegation of misconduct against one of the nominated justices but that the NJC under the leadership of Chief Justice Ariwoola refused to act on the alert.
“Before the recent appointments of Justices into the Supreme Court, one of the signatories to this letter, Access to Justice, twice made representations to Your Lordship as Chairman of the NJC to investigate allegations made against one of the nominated Justices -Hon. Justice Chidiebere Uwa – following unresolved accusations of corruption and violations of the Judicial Code of Conduct against her as a Judge of Abia State.
“None of the two letters, dated 1/08/2022 and 30/11/ 2023 received as much as an acknowledgment.
“The same organization requested that the NJC investigate allegations made by Hon. Justice Dattijo Muhammed concerning deliberate delays in filling Supreme Court vacancies (details in para. D, below) in a letter dated 30th Nov. 2023. Up till this time, the NJC has refused to acknowledge or act on the letter,” the letter added.
Besides, the group also alleged that it was on record that a number of appointments in the Judiciary since the Chief Justice Ariwoola assumed office have triggered charges of nepotism and the illicit use of influence against him including that he improperly used his influence as CJN to promote the appointment of his family members into judicial and administrative positions in the Judiciary.
The letter said: “Those appointments include those of your son, Hon. Justice Olukayode Ariwoola Jr, (who was recommended by the NJC on July 14th 2023) for appointment as Judge of the Federal Capital Territory (“FCT”) High Court; Your nephew (Hon. Justice Lateef Ganiyu) as Justice of the Court of Appeal and your junior brother, Mr. Adebayo Ariwoola as Auditor of the NJC in Dec. 2023.
“The latest of these allegations came last month, after it was alleged that Your Lordship influenced the FCT High Court judicial recruitment process by requesting that a slot be reserved for Oyo State in the recruitment, at the expense of States which had no Judges in the FCT High Court, to ensure that Your Lordship’s daughter-in-law, who is a Magistrate in the FCT Judiciary be selected for appointment as a Judge of the FCT High Court.
“These allegations are found in a plethora of media publications. We have no record that Your Lordship denied these claims,” the group added.
Some of the organisations in the group included Access to Justice, African Bar Association, Fight Against Corruption in the Judiciary, Open Justice Alliance, Rule of Law and Accountability, among others.
The letter by the group came few days after two highly respected top lawyers in the country including the new Chairman of the Body of Benchers, Chief Adegboyega Awomolo, SAN and a respected silk, Mr Jibrin Okutepa, SAN expressed similar worry over the state of the nation’s legal profession.
BAR & BENCH WATCH reports that Chief Awomolo, SAN had said “One must be honest to admit that the current public image of the Bar and Bench in this country is not at the height that it ought to be.
“Members of the public no longer trust the Bench and the Bar for justice. Decisions of courts no longer inspire confidence and trust,” saying there was the urgent need to reverse the trend.
Okutepa,SAN, in a reflection had also said it was and remains regretful that the present situation in the legal profession has constantly fuelled attacks against the judiciary institution and the bar.
“For society to stop attacking the legal profession, the legal profession must wake up and start doing what is right and must not be seen to be in conspiracy with darkness permeating every stratum of the Nigerian society,” Okutepa, SAN, had advised.
The group of civil societies organisation and campaigners also in their joint letter addressed to the CJN, expressed their disappointment with the lack of effective reform and the increasing damage to the Judiciary’s reputation due to alleged misuse of authority and poor leadership.
The groups noted that since the CJN’s appointment, the Judiciary has failed to improve its public perception and has instead steadily deteriorated.
The group explained that the reinstatement of two judges— Olotu and Ofili-Ajumogobia—who were removed for serious misconduct, for instance, demonstrated the National Judicial Council’s (NJC) lack of commitment to the judiciary’s reputation.
They also said that more often than not when allegations bordering on judicial integrity and unethical conduct are brought to his attention, such petitions are either not acknowledged or acted upon.
The groups further highlighted mounting allegations of nepotism and undue influence in judicial appointments against the CJN, which have fueled public cynicism and distrust in the Judiciary.
They mentioned reports claiming that the CJN improperly used his influence to promote appointments of family members into judicial and administrative positions.
Another concern raised by the CSOs was the allegation made by retiring Justice Dattijo Muhammed, who claimed that the CJN deliberately delayed appointing Supreme Court Justices despite the court’s overbearing docket, implying an ulterior motive.
The CSOs and campaigners emphasized that these allegations have had a profound negative impact on the public perception of Nigeria’s Judiciary, both domestically and internationally.
They argue that the CJN’s actions have further damaged the Judiciary’s image, and urgent action is needed to pull the institution from the brink of total perdition.
The group called for a declaration of a state of emergency in the Judiciary and stressed the need for transparent and merit-based judicial selection decisions.
They urged the CJN to take immediate steps to overhaul the entire judicial system and restore public trust in the institution.
The letter of complaint which has now been seen by BAR & BENCH WATCH reads:
28 March 2024
Hon. Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, GCON
Chief Justice of Nigeria
Supreme Court Complex,
Three Arms Zone Central District,
Abuja.
Your Lordship,
MOUNTING ALLEGATIONS OF UNETHICAL PRACTICES AGAINST HIS
LORDSHIP WORSEN IMAGE OF NIGERIA’S JUDICIARY
As stakeholders in Nigeria’s justice system, the undersigned civil society bodies whose work is underpinned by, and relies on the rule of law and the integrity of Nigeria’s justice system, feel the strong weight of professional and moral duty to make these representations to Your Lordship concerning the state of Nigeria’s Judiciary under your leadership. Our aim is to call attention to the harm which continuing missteps, misuse of authority and a general failure to undertake effective reform, is doing to the Judiciary that has, over the years, borne the trauma of massive decline and destabilization, and to press Your Lordship to address these issues.
The Judiciary’s decline, to be fair, preceded Your Lordship’s appointment as Chief Justice of Nigeria (“CJN”) in 2022, but overlaps Your Lordship’s many years of judicial service. This decline is highlighted by a number of surveys, such as those by the ICPC (Nigeria Corruption Index: Report of A Pilot Survey) and the UNODC/NBS (Corruption in Nigeria Bribery: public experience and response (2017).
Your Lordship came into office at troubling moments of our Judiciary’s history. Recall that, in 2022, shortly before Your Lordships appointment, you led 13 other Justices of the Supreme Court in taking the unprecedented step of petitioning then CJN, Hon. Justice Tanko Muhammad CFR GCON, lamenting his manner of leadership, unresponsiveness, nepotism and maladministration in overseeing the business and welfare of the Supreme Court and its Justices. Not long after, Hon. Justice T. Muhammad announced an early retirement from office. May we, in this regard, further note that Hon. Justice Tanko Muhammad’s predecessor also left office in even more tragic circumstances. These two cases were firsts of their kind, unprecedented in our judicial history.
A2Justice is a non-profit, non-governmental organization working to promote integrity, transparency, accountability and independence in legal and judicial institutions and to protect the rights of individuals and groups to justice. A2Justice is the 2009 recipient of MacArthur Foundation’s Award for Creative and Effective Institutions and also the 2010 recipient of the first- ever Nigerian Bar Association’s Gani Fawehinmi Award for Human Rights and Social Justice.
May we note, however, that prior to these internal fissures in the Judiciary, there had been external incidents – also without precedent – whose impact on the Judiciary had been hugely staggering. Your Lordship will recall that in October 2016, Nigerian security operatives invaded houses and courts of judicial officers – including those of Supreme Court Justices – following allegations of corruption, and which subsequently led to indictments against a number of judges, alongside a Supreme Court Justice, although these indictments were quashed subsequently for procedural infractions. Many observers see these incidents as highly damaging of the Judiciary’s dignity, respect and public trust.
Following Your Lordship’s appointment as CJN, expectations were high that, with benefit of a long and instructive range of hindsight, Your Lordship would be acutely conscious of the extreme urgency of reforming the judiciary and its administration, arresting its downward spiral in public trust, and reinforcing its capacity to promote and protect the rule of law. May we say, very respectfully, that, as of now, the Judiciary remains unreconstructed and its public perception has not improved since then. On the contrary, we are very concerned that it has steadily grown worse since Your Lordship assumed its leadership. Furthermore, Your Lordship’s personal actions – quite apart from the dysfunctionalities of the justice system – are harming the already fragile and enfeebled Judiciary, and whatever is left of its credibility.
We are not unconscious of the weight of this judgment, but have not reached it hastily or flippantly, believing they are justified by substantial evidence. Under Your Lordship’s watch, the Judiciary has suffered further reputational harm, mostly accounted for by:
Reabsorption of dismissed/compulsorily retired Judges: The National Judicial Council (“NJC”) chaired by Your Lordship has reinstated two Judges removed by the NJC for serious misconduct without, at the very least, exhausting available legal avenues to keep these Judges out of the Judiciary, in order to safeguard against the huge embarrassment their reabsorption would cause to the perception of the Judiciary. Justice Gladys Olotu was compulsorily retired in 2014 for grievous misconduct by former President Buhari, following a recommendation by the NJC. Justice Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia was dismissed in 2018, after the NJC found that she had received monies from several persons and corporations using corporate accounts. It is conceded that these Judges won lawsuits for their reinstatement, but the judgments they got faulted the procedure of their removal and not the substantive merits of the case brought against them.
Given the overarching importance of upholding public trust in the judicial process, it is hugely disappointing that the NJC chose to not do more to vindicate and reinforce its original determinations against the two Judges. The Council could, for instance, have appealed the judgments and waited for a final opinion on the legality of its decision; or, given that no statute of limitation prevented it from reexercising its disciplinary procedures against them, re-commenced proceedings to hold them ultimately accountable, ensuring they are not anymore in a position to harm the fragile image of the Judiciary.
The NJC’s “surrender” to these Judges, counting the options available to it, is, in our respectful view, a profound demonstration of its lack of commitment to the institutional standing and reputation of the Judiciary and the Council’s ineffectiveness as an oversight body.
Turning a Blind Eye to Issues of Judicial Integrity
It may additionally be observed that Your Lordship is turning a blind eye to the importance of maintaining, as much as possible, integrity in the Judiciary, and that most of Your Lordship’s rhetoric in this regard may possibly be passed-off as lip service. Before the recent appointments of Justices into the Supreme Court, one of the signatories to this letter, Access to Justice, twice made representations to Your Lordship as Chairman of the NJC to investigate allegations made against one of the nominated Justices -Hon. Justice Chidiebere Uwa – following unresolved accusations of corruption and violations of the Judicial Code of Conduct against her as a Judge of Abia State. None of the two letters, dated 1/08/2022 and 30/11/ 2023 received as much as an acknowledgment. The same organization requested that the NJC investigate allegations made by Hon. Justice Dattijo Muhammed concerning deliberate delays in filling Supreme Court vacancies (details in para. D, below) in a letter dated 30th Nov. 2023. Up till this time, the NJC has refused to acknowledge or act on the letter.
Allegations of Nepotism and Illicit Influence Peddling
A number of appointments in the Judiciary since Your Lordship assumed office have triggered charges of nepotism and the illicit use of influence against Your Lordship. It is claimed that you improperly used your influence as CJN to promote the appointment of your family members into judicial and administrative positions in the Judiciary.
Those appointments include those of your son, Hon. Justice Olukayode Ariwoola Jr, (who was recommended by the NJC on July 14th 2023) for appointment as Judge of the Federal Capital Territory (“FCT”) High Court; Your nephew (Hon. Justice Lateef Ganiyu) as Justice of the Court of Appeal and your junior brother, Mr. Adebayo Ariwoola as Auditor of the NJC in Dec. 2023. 6
The latest of these allegations came last month, after it was alleged that Your Lordship influenced the FCT High Court judicial recruitment process by requesting that a slot be reserved for Oyo State in the recruitment, at the expense of States which had no Judges in the FCT High Court, to ensure that Your Lordship’s daughter-in-law, who is a Magistrate in the FCT Judiciary be selected for appointment as a Judge of the FCT High Court. These allegations are found in a plethora of media publications. We have no record that Your Lordship denied these claims.
Manipulating Timing of Appointments of Supreme Court Justices
Speaking at his valedictory session at the Supreme Court in November 2023, Hon. Justice Dattijo Muhammed (rtd), accused Your Lordship of deliberately refusing to make additional appointments of Supreme Court Justices (even when the court was depleted to 11 Justices), implying, per force, that while the Supreme Court was suffocating under the pressure of acutely-reduced bench numbers, Your Lordship was, for whatever motive, preserving the stifling status-quo in order to achieve some ulterior objective. At least, this is the sense in which we understand rtd. Justice Muhammed’s allegations. Your Lordship is not known to have denied the allegations too, even when there was ample opportunity to do so, lending credence to the view that the accusations are credible. Shortly after the Supreme Court decided the presidential election petition cases, we would note the coincidence that there was renewed traction in appointing new Justices to fill the vacancies on the Court’s bench.
Worsening Strain on Judiciary’s Public Perception The net effect of the forgoing is that Nigeria’s Judiciary has further lost the respect of Nigerians and the international community, and is, in fact, endangering its own legitimacy. The loss of dignity is increasingly observed in a variety of media platforms. Hon. Justice Dattijo Mohammed himself had, at his valedictory, warned that “public perception of the judiciary have over the years become witheringly scornful and monstrously critical”. Afenifere, the pan-Yoruba socio-political group recently delivered a stinging distress call, saying that it was worried “at the dwindling image and increasing loss of confidence in the judiciary by the Nigerian people.” Former Minister of Education/World Bank Africa Region Vice President Oby Ezekwesili, recently called out Nigeria’s Judiciary as being “rotten”. Olumide Akpata, former President of the NBA, said not long ago that: “There is nearuniversal agreement that public confidence in the Judiciary … is at an all-time low”. Similar tropes are reverberating across broad spectrums of public opinion.
Unfortunately, notwithstanding the damning nature of these characterizations and warnings, the leadership of Nigeria’s Judiciary appears unruffled by them, nor by the Judiciary’s loss of esteem, and barely shows any signs of irritation or indignation. But the reputational harm is affecting and stigmatizing many conscientious Judges/Justices who serve honourably, and do not deserve the unfair tarring of the entire institution by the same brush, irrespective of the disposition of the Judiciary’s leadership to the embarrassment. No respectable Judiciary, we are persuaded, should afford to remain indifferent to the forms of public malignment and ridicule against it as we have witnessed in Nigeria.
Office of Chief Justice of Nigeria, a Public Trust, not to Promote Personal Interest
At this time, Nigeria’s judiciary – as many believe – is bumping along the bottom, but Your Lordship’s actions have arguably exacerbated that already bad situation, plunging the Judiciary’s image further down the barrel. The office of Chief Justice of Nigeria is a public trust, and the holder of that office, we respectfully submit, is under duty to exercise that trust in the public interest and not in privileging the interest of family members over the interests of the larger institution. Moreover, as head of the Judiciary, Your Lordship’s actions carry very significant, far-reaching implications; they represent a frame of reference against which other actors might justify their own parochialisms, and, therefore, are bad precedents. Furthermore, where judicial officers or other heads of courts contravene judicial standards of conduct, or engage in unethical practices – such as nepotism – Your Lordship could not properly be in a position to sit over them in judgment.
Conclusion Your Lordship, we are concerned that Nigeria’s judiciary, a once proud institution, has lost direction and is now barely a shadow of itself. Whatever remains of its credibility now lies hanging by a thread. Therefore, there is a certain “urgency of now” to pull the Judiciary from the brink of complete perdition, by avoiding actions that elevate that risk, as well as a dire need to overhaul the entire judicial system. Declaring a state of emergency in the Judiciary would be a good start. Ensuring that judicial selection decisions are transparently and verifiably merit-based, is a pressing need at this time.
Your Lordship, it has been said that “no system of justice can rise above the ethics of those who administer it”; Nigeria’s judiciary will not likely rise from the abyss unless its leadership exercises better and more selfless stewardship of their high responsibilities. This is what Nigerians want to see now.
In closing, we find it especially fitting to borrow our final words from a letter which Your Lordship co-authored (with 13 other Justices of the Supreme Court), to your predecessor, Justice Tanko Muhammad CFR, GCON (rtd) in June 2022. It is thus:
“Your Lordship, this is a wake up call. Your Lordship must take full responsibility as our leader…. We will not wait for the total collapse of the institution. We must not abandon our responsibility … in the face of these sad developments that threaten our survival as an institution. We have done our utmost best to send a wake up call to Your Lordship. A stich in time saves nine.”
We thank Your Lordship for his kind consideration.
Yours sincerely,
Access to Justice Joseph Otteh
On behalf of
Chairman, Human & Constitutional Sonnie Ekwowusi Esq
Rights Committee, African Bar
Association
Fight Against Corruption in the Judiciary Bayo Akinlade
FundELG Africa. Dominic E. Obozuwa
Open Justice Alliance Prof. Chidi Anslem Odinkalu
. Rule of Law and Accountability Okechukwu Nwanguma,
Advocacy Centre- RULAAC
Sterling Law Centre Adedeji Ajare
Cc.
The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice,
Federal Ministry of Justice, Abuja
Hon. Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun JSC, Deputy National Chairman
National Judicial Council
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