SPEECH DELIVERED BY IDEMUDIA IREDIA OSIFO, CHAIRMAN, NIGERIAN BAR ASSOCIATION, BENIN BRANCH (LION BAR) AT THE CEREMONY TO MARK THE NEW LEGAL YEAR – 4th October, 2024

PROTOCOL

Let me begin by welcoming our indefatigable judges back to the new legal year after their well-deserved vacation. I equally welcome our distinguished members of the Benin Bar, the Judiciary staff, and the Ministry of Justice.

The ceremony to mark the beginning of a new legal year dates back to medieval England when the judges would adorn their ceremonial attire and take a two-mile walk from Temple Bar to Westminster Abbey for a solemn assembly to seek divbn ine guidance and strength for the new year. This inextricably means that we inherited same from our colonial masters. Incidentally, we celebrated our independence only a few days back. We may be free from our colonial masters, but Nigeria and its institutions are certainly still in tightly cuffed shackles, forged in the seemingly unquenching fires of corruption.

At the risk of sounding despondent, Nigeria is almost now synonymous with corruption- this, the everyday Nigerian has come to terms with. However, it becomes utterly disturbing when the foundation of justice (the judiciary) becomes a reflector of this hydra-headed problem. The National Bureau of Statistics in its corruption pattern trends for 2023 rates the Nigerian Judiciary as the highest receiver of bribes among public officials, surpassing the police, customs, and military personnel. This unfortunate situation has placed the Judiciary in the spotlight of public scrutiny.

The Judiciary is also enslaved by the wanton lack of political will from the Executive arm of government to grant it full and unfettered financial autonomy. Both factors put together have in no small measure eroded the gains the Judiciary has recorded over the years.

Notwithstanding the above, I am a firm believer in a better and stronger Judiciary, especially in Edo State. The Benin Bar remains resolute in championing this cause. We know full well that due to the solemn and conservative nature of the Judiciary, it cannot speak for itself. This is why we will not rest on oars in echoing and reechoing the importance of attaining full financial independence for the Judiciary.

However, the Judiciary must as a matter of duty, play its internal role in ensuring that it rids itself of the rebellious elements casting bleak shadows upon it. God admonished thus:-

You shall appoint judges and officers in all your towns that the LORD your God is giving you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment. You shall not pervert justice. You shall not show partiality, and you shall not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and subverts the cause of the righteous, Justice, and only justice you shall follow….” Deuteronomy 16: 18 – 20 ESV

The Judiciary must at all times be seen to be impartial. In the same vein, the Judiciary must fully embrace judicial activism to command the requisite reverence from other arms of government. It is highly pitiable that at this age of our legal journey as a country, the Judiciary still goes cap in hand to the Executive for the provision of basic work tools. This needless dependence has ensured that many of our court facilities are either non-existent or in deplorable states, especially at the inferior courts. It has also placed the Judiciary in an orb of contempt so that court orders are flouted at will with little or no consequences. The rule of law ought to prevail at all times.

It would be unfair not to highlight the undeniable fact that some members of the Bar have in no small measure contributed to the corruption in the Judiciary – for there cannot be a receiver of bribes if there are no givers. Many lawyers are either desperate for legal victory or cowardly in decision-making that they either agree with their clients by suggesting efforts required to engineer the tilting of the justice scale or champion it themselves. We must do better as ministers in the temple of justice.

The only victory in a legal battle is that justice is done, regardless of who wins or loses. We as a Bar will equally be extra vigilant in identifying and dealing decisively with such agents of rot in our system.

Still within the advocacy to ensure an institutionally sound Judiciary, we must not fail to highlight the numerous advantages of technology in easing justice delivery. We as a Bar have been and will continue to advocate for the institutionalization of technology in the Judiciary. We can all attest to how technology has made our lives a lot easier. There is no reason why we should not make justice delivery equally easy, to lighten the burden on the common man in our society.

This speech is by no means intended to be one of bleakness. That is why I must not fail to hail the Edo State Judiciary under the leadership of His Lordship, Hon. Justice D.I. Okungbowa (the Master of the Rules) for his efforts at repositioning the Judiciary within the State, prominent among which is the Performance Evaluation Scheme which has significantly raised the bar on performance in the Edo State Judiciary. My Lord has never wavered in his resolve to bequeath a sound legacy in the Judiciary. This must be highly commended.

I must not also fail to mention the 300 percent increase in the wages of Judicial Officers in Nigeria. This is a laudable step in the right direction. We however advocate that the same gesture be extended to Magistrates and Area Courts. However laudable this gesture is, we are not distracted from the resolve to actualize full and unfettered financial autonomy for the Judiciary. This remains the goal.

Yesterday, I saw a notice bearing today’s date which was issued by the Edo State Judicial Service Commission calling for expression of interest from suitable candidates for appointment as judges of the Edo State Judiciary. I sincerely hope that this is a joke. The Edo State Judicial Service Commission cannot commence the process of appointing three (3) additional judges for the High Court of Edo State while we have three (3) judges designates who are yet to be sworn in by the Executive Council of the State.

Recent remarks by the Chief Justice of Nigeria Kekere Ekun J.S.C suggest that the National Judicial Commission (NJC) will not review the appointments of judge designates. With this, it is now obvious that the failure to swear in these three judges is now a monkey on the back of the Executive Council of the State. The suggestion that the Executive cannot act now because the issue is sub judice sounds like a lame excuse; it will only cost those in court N900 to file a notice of discontinuance and get rid of the case. It is high time the Executive stop thinking about the judge designates and starts thinking of their children and others who depend on them for their survival. When they applied to serve as judges, they did not plan to become jobless. The refusal to swear in these three judges is also an affront on the NJC who has the final say on who is qualified to be appointed as a judge. Will the NJC accommodate a new process while these three (3) remain in limbo?

This new legal year affords us another opportunity to evaluate and improve our performance as a community of legal personalities, midwifing justice. I therefore call on the bar and bench to work hand in hand to create for us and for the next generation a justice delivery system that favours the rich and the poor equally- one that creates an indestructible sense of confidence, one that commands reverence, one that stands as an ensign of assured hope, one that gives no room for public ridicule, one that does not only do justice but is seen to do justice.

This is a call to service of our country, through our status as ministers in the temple of justice; we cannot but answer this call, for it is in our interest and the interest of the generation unborn.

May we be alive to celebrate the institutionalization of efficiency and reverence in our Judiciary. Thank you and God bless.

Idemudia Iredia Osifo, Esq.
Chairman, NBA Benin Branch (Lion Bar), Benin City.