The Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Tanko Muhammad, has called for nominations to fill six vacancies on the Supreme Court bench.
The call signals the commencement of the process for appointments to the Supreme Court bench which currently has 17 justices and will be losing additional three to retirement in a few months’ time.
Mr Muhammad, in line with the relevant rules, has sent letters calling for nominations to fill the six slots to the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), and other relevant judicial officers, heads of courts, among others.
The NBA in a notice, confirmed that it received the CJN’s request for nomination on January 19, 2022.
The CJN’s letter indicates that the six available slots are to be filled by nominees from five of Nigeria’s six geo-political zones.
The zones with the number of slots allotted to each of them are: South-east – two (2); South-south – one (1); South-west – one (1); North-central – one (1); and North-west – one (1).
Only the North-east, of all the six geo-political zones, currently has its slots occupied on the Supreme Court bench.
Currently, there are 17 justices on the Supreme Court bench, which is just four short of its full complement of 21 justices.
The Supreme Court has never attained the full complement, the closest it has ever achieved being 20 as of the beginning of March last year.
If the six being planned to be appointed are added to the existing 17 justices on the bench, it will make a total of 23, which will overshoot the 21 limit by two. This indicates that not all the six slots for which nominations have been called are immediately vacant.
The call for nominations by the CJN, who chairs the National Judicial Council (NJC), the body constitutionally saddled with the responsibility of recommending judicial appointments and sanctions of Nigerian judges, is, therefore, in anticipation of the imminent retirements of some of the existing justices.
Findings show that three of the existing justices will be retiring between March and August 2022.
They include the current second most senior judge of the court, Mary Odili, who hails from Imo State in the South-east and will be retiring on attaining the mandatory retirement age of 70 on May 12.
The two others are Ejembi Eko, from Benue State in the North-central, who retires on May 23, and Abdu Aboki, from Kano State in the North-east, who bows out on August 5.
In just about a year ago, there were 20 justices on the bench, which was only one judge short of the full complement of 21 justices a the time.
The number began a downward spiral to the 17 that it is currently at, with the death of 69-year-old Sylvester Ngwuta on March 7, 2021.
Mr Ngwuta’s death was closely followed by the retirement of the then second most senior justice of the court, Bode Rhodes-Vivour, on clocking 70 years old on March 22, 2021, and later by the death of Samuel Oseji at 67 on September 28, 2021.
These imply that the South-east, South-west, and South-south regions have, each, had one vacant slot on the bench of the Supreme Court in the last one year.
In addition to these, there are now anticipated openings in the South-east, North-central, and North-west slots with the imminent retirement of Mrs Odili, Mr Eko, and Mr Aboki, respectively, in the next few months.
The NBA, in its notice dated February 7, 2022, which was shared with journalists by its publicity secretary, Rapulu Nduka, on Saturday, called on qualified and interested lawyers from the five geo-political zones to express their interest.
To submit a valid expression of interest, according to the NBA notice, interested lawyers must present evidence of payment of Bar Practicing Fees (BPF) as well as NBA branch dues for the past 10 years.
The applicants must also present “10 judgments delivered in contested cases the applicant conducted in the five years preceding 2022 certified by competent authorities for legal practitioners in private practice.”
They must also have “active successful practice at the Bar, including satisfactory presentation of cases in court as a legal practitioner either in private practice or as a legal officer in any public service.”
Those in academics must have “credible record of teaching law, legal research in a reputable university and publication of legal works …”
He or she must also present a letter of good standing from the Chairman of his or her NBA branch confirming that he or she possess among other qualities, good character and reputation, diligence and hard work, honesty, integrity and sound knowledge of law and consistent adherence to professional ethics.
“Upon receipt of the expressions of interest, the National Secretariat shall publish the names of the interested candidates and request comments thereon from members of the NBA,” the notice added.
The NBA recently released the names of 164 lawyers who indicated interest in being appointed judges of the Federal High Court.
Although lawyers who have been at the bar for a minimum of 10 years are constitutionally eligible to be appointed directly to the Supreme Court bench, the bias for picking from among the Court of Appeal judges has prevailed in the process of appointment of persons to the highest court of the land in recent decades.
Similarly, the Nigerian constitution allows for appointment of a lawyer with 10 years in the bar to be appointed as the CJN, but the system has adopted a traditional method of appointment based on seniority.
Read NBA’s letter calling on lawyers’ expression of interest in full HERE
