By Whirlwindnews
Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, was on Friday, August 23, 2024, inaugurated as the 19th Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) – Nigeria Judicial Council (NJC) record. She is the 18th Nigerian to occupy the position, down from Justice Adetokunbo Ademola, who took the first shot, as the first Nigerian from 1958 to 1972, having taken over from Justice Stafford Foster Sutton, a Briton, the first Nigerian CJN, who occupied it between 1955 to 1958. She is also the second woman to occupy the position after Justice Mariam Aloma-Muktar – 2012-2014.
Apparently to underscore how important the assignment was, President Bola Tinubu, who jetted out to France in his new Presidential aircraft on Monday, August 19, had to return to the country to perform the swearing-in ceremony, at the State House, Abuja, before hundreds of eyes from the Nigerian judiciary and millions of Nigerians watching the event.
Armed with Masters degree in law, from the London School of Economic and Political Science in November 1983, Kekere-Ekun, was pulled out in December 1989. From private practice where she was a lawyer from 1985 to 1989, she moved to the bench, beginning as a Senior Magistrate Grade II, in the Lagos State Judiciary in December 1989, and later appointed a judge of the High Court of Lagos State on July 19, 1996.
There, she served as Chairman, Robbery and Firearms Tribunal, Zone II, Ikeja, Lagos, from November 1996 to May 1999, from where she was elevated to the Court of Appeal on 22nd September 2004, serving in various divisions of the court and as presiding justice of two divisions of the court (Makurdi & Akure) in 2021 and 2023, respectively. She finally made it to the Supreme Court of Nigeria as the fifth female justice of the court, on Monday, July 8, 2013.
What this means is that the new CJN is not bereft. She has history behind her and plenty of experience to boot – experience picked up both in the classrooms, where she was equipped with adequate knowledge, and in practice, where she honed it for the past 39 years. It then means what comes out of her office as the head of the judiciary, henceforth, is deliberate. Her actions and deliverables cannot be a function of inexperience or lack of knowledge.
Why do we emphasise on this? Simple! The Nigerian judiciary she is taking over is in complete tatters – a mess – desolate, dishevelled and disgraced. Incidentally, she is part of that awful history, and in some cases, directly responsible for why many Nigerians turn away their faces and cover their nostrils at the very mention of that arm of government, especially in the years of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Not that other arms of government – the executive and the legislature are better in any way. But the emphasis on the judiciary is because of its superintending powers over the other two. The judiciary, apart from possessing the power of life and death, so to speak, also has the power of redemption, not only to tame other powers, but to heal the society.
Till the end of humanity, long after the bodies of the present generation must have completely decayed and manured the earth, the name of Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, would always be mentioned as the lead-judge that delivered that notorious judgement, which made Hope Uzodimma the Governor of Imo State on January 14, 2020, catapulting him from the number four to the first position in the original rating by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Now, it does not matter, neither does it redeem the situation, whether the erudite jurist delivered the judgement according to law as it is. What matters more is how much justice has been done and is seen to have been done to the society. In other words, how much did that particular outing, satisfy the three-way traffic concept of justice – justice to the accused, justice to the accuser and justice to the society, so poignantly made by the late Chukwudifu Oputa, Justice of the Supreme Court (JSC), as he then was?
Put differently, how did that judgement satisfy the dictum in law that justice must not only be done, but seen to have been done? That was the contentious issue in the Imo case and many other cases in the Nigerian judicial system in recent years, particularly in the APC years and more particularly in last year’s general elections and even in the latest cases – Imo, Kogi, Bayelsa, governorship election cases that were decided by the apex court on Friday, the same day the new CJN was inaugurated.
Even non-lawyers, these days, have come to terms with the fact that law in itself has two components – the letters of the law and the spirit of the law. But over the recent years, the Nigerian courts seem to have concentrated on the former and completely ignored the latter. Court verdicts taper more on technicalities to cushion nagging questions, rather than answer them.
That is why the pronouncements of the courts, particularly the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT) and the Supreme Court in the last presidential election cases, have at the best, remained suspicious, while at the worst, totally dismissed as horrifying. It is because neither the original court nor the apex court, answered the basic questions, based on the actual winner of the election, based on examination of figures, but merely relied on technicalities in deciding the cases.
That is why we find it gratifying that the new CJN is thinking about restoring judicial integrity as one of her priorities. What is more? The adverse public feeling about the judiciary, would have been mitigated if it is coming from ordinary members of the society not counted as “learned.” But when such is coming from as high as Musa Dattijo Muhammad (JSC), who, in fact retired as second in command to Kayode Ariwoola, the immediate past CJN, it is no longer a function of ignorance.
Now that Kekere-Ekun has vowed to take up the matter, we recommend that she visits that classic treatise of October 27, 2023, where the retired erudite jurist, in his valedictory address, all but agreed with the public perception that the judiciary is oozing the stench of corruption, sleaze, and mismanagement.
“Well, my expectation is that we will take the judiciary to higher heights. The reputation that it has, we will improve it. We will make sure that people have more confidence in the judiciary. I believe that it’s not a one man job, we all have to be on board. And because we all see where the areas are that need improvement, I believe that there will be cooperation, because we all want to see a better judiciary.
“A better judiciary is for the benefit of the entire nation. Whatever the shortcomings that we see today, we’re all members of the society. So if you want to see improvement, let the improvement start with each and every one of us and our approach to justice. Let us also have faith in the system.” These were her words after taking her oath of office on Friday.
What could more comforting. Some people have actually claimed that her appointment is to continue where her predecessors left and complete what they left behind. Nigerians will be waiting to see where the wind blows. Luckily for her, the Nigerian Senate is a rubber-stamp institution. So, nobody expects any sort of hiccups regarding her confirmation.
But, as William Shakespeare, once wrote – the purest treasures mortal times afford, is a spotless reputation. The misgivings about her previous outings could actually be excused by the argument that she was under some hierarchical leash in the apex court and could therefore be beholding to some powers therein. Now, she has no such constraints. She is now in charge. It is left to her to swim or sink. Her decision! We wish her luck.
