From Godwin Tsa, Abuja
Chief Justice of Nigeria(CJN), Ibrahim Tanko, has called on lawyers and judges to unite and rid the legal profession of bad eggs.
While expressing the need to protect the image of the judiciary, Justice Tanko suggested that cleaning the sector would mean judges stopping the issuance of reckless ex-parte orders, while lawyers should stop filing frivolous suits and forum shopping.
The CJN stated this, yesterday, in Abuja while inaugurating Justice Hussein Yusuf as substantive Chief Judge of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) judiciary.
“An occasion like this may be auspicious for self-assessment. It is by co-incidence that this event comes at a time the Nigerian Bar Association is holding its 61st Annual General Conference tagged: ‘Taking the lead’. The legal profession should indeed take the lead in all human affairs. However, the lead is at a price.
“We cannot take the lead when our courts issue ex-parte orders recklessly. We cannot take the lead when many litigants with support of their counsel engage in forum shopping. We cannot take the lead when counsels file a case before a court that they know lacks jurisdiction and the judge proceeds to hear the case. We cannot take the lead when a counsels file frivolous cases in our courts just for nuisance value or to buy time. Administration of justice is the bedrock of not only democratic or civilised societies, but it also extends beyond the borders of civilsed nations. No society can afford to discard administration of justice.
“There is no regime in any country that can operate without a judiciary. No matter how primitive a society is, it must have its own mechanism for resolution of its disputes. Otherwise, that society will drift into anarchy, self-destruction and extinction. We must not only do self-assessment, we also need self-cleansing. All hands must, therefore, be on deck from both the bar and the bench to rid the legal profession of bad eggs.
“In recent times, I had cause, in a number of occasions to warn judges to desist from engaging themselves in unwholesome practices that will erode public confidence in the administration of justice. The rising number of cases filed in all our courts is a pointer that Nigerians have confidence in the justice system. The bar and bench must guard that confidence jealously.