By HW Emmanuel J. Samaila, Esq.

In a piece titled, ‘How a former CJN preferred Nweze to other Supreme Court nominees from the S’East’, the Law & Society Magazine reported** that:

“What many do not know is that at the time nominations were sent in for appointments to the Supreme Court in 2014, he was preferred above other more senior candidates from the South East zone by the then Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) Aloma Mukhtar. Justice Mukhtar said that in all her years in the Court of Appeal, she had never been able to upturn Nweze’s judgment. She reportedly concluded that Nweze could not remain in the Court of Appeal while writing Supreme Court judgments.”

Imagine for a moment that My Lord, the former CJN, never read or sat on appeal on any of Justice Nweze’s decisions in which his knowledge of the law, its interpretation and application in the resolution of disputes were displayed. How would the CJN have known of His Lordship’s adjudicatory prowess to premise his preference over other candidates?

In a paper titled, “Ratio Decidendi and Judicial Precedent”, Halima Doma Kutigi, PhD, MCIArb (UK) quoted the editorial to Part 1 of the Lagos High Court Reports (250) 1 LHCR, thus:

“Most cases do not go beyond the High Courts and several important principles are initiated at this level and remain the Law, especially where not appealed. Where these judgments are not reported a whole body of legal principles is lost from our aggregation of legal knowledge. Reporting the decision of the High Court, is therefore an imperative.

Secondly, law reporting serves to highlight the tremendous industry and ingenuity of our High Court Judges…. It is easy to forget that most of the English decisions that we rely on even at the Appellate Court level, King’s Bench, Queen’s Bench and Chancery reports, are High Court judgments faithfully recorded in that country by those who recognize that the High Courts form the backbone of the Superior Courts of Record and consequently are of fundamental importance to the development of law.”

Similar statement can be made about the lower courts in a State (Magistrates Courts, Customary Courts, Sharia Courts and Area Courts). Majority of these Courts are presided over by legal practitioners, some of whom have acquired post-graduate degrees in Law and other fields of knowledge. Many of the judges have been on the lower bench for a time spanning a few years to decades. The industry and ingenuity demonstrated by some of these eminent jurists in their erudite decisions remain buried and forgotten in closed files in a cabinet at various Court Registries. While an appeal gives such decisions some degree of visibility and relevance, the action of an interested person, such as a legal researcher, who is aware of such a decision and obtains a certified true copy of it, brings it to limelight. Academics write papers to manifest their continuing education. A judgment is the most empirical proof of an adjudicator’s continuing judicial education.

Time and chance determines the elevation or otherwise of some eminently qualified lower court judges to the High Court and its jurisdictional coordinates. In the meantime, their passion for adjudication, years spent on the Bench and job satisfaction prevent some of them from quitting the Bench for other fields of legal practice.

The prevalence of reported cases from appellate Courts in our law reports significantly diminishes the application of the doctrine of judicial precedent within a State where superior courts of record resolve disputes involving State laws (statutory, customary and or Sharia laws). The non-reporting or publication of the decisions of the superior courts of record of a State robs the lower Courts in the State of important legal principles. Consequentially, the arbitrary and discrepant interpretation and application of the laws is perpetuated.

The publication and open access to the decisions of some High Courts and courts of coordinate jurisdiction in Nigeria is noteworthy and commendable. Few courts stand out in this category. They include the Federal Capital Territory High Court, Edo Judiciary and the National Industrial Court of Nigeria.

The need for State Judiciaries to devise ways of ensuring that the decisions of State Courts are accessible, especially online, cannot be overemphasized. The ensuing benefits include:

Accentuating the works of their dedicated, industrious and ingenious judges thereby creating a possible path for calls to higher and more challenging duties;
Spurring lagging judges to be more committed to the performance of their duties;
Enhancing uniformity in the interpretation and application of State laws;
Providing stimulus for research on the viability and impact of State laws for reforms and other purposes; and
Creating access to necessary data for law reviews.
Checks revealed that there were several law reports in the past in which decisions of the High Courts were reported. These include: All Nigerian Law Report (All NLR); Nigerian Monthly Law Report (NMLR); University of Ife Law Report (UILR); Western Nigeria Law Reports (WNLR); Law Report of the East-Central States of Nigeria; Law Reports of Northern Nigeria later tagged Northern Nigeria Law Report (NNLR) and Mid-Western Nigeria Law Report. It is hoped that the more recent State-sponsored reports, such as the Lagos High Court Reports (LHCR), are ongoing because of their significance.

Access to information today is just a click away. State Judiciaries should take bold steps and create the necessary sections in their websites for the publication of decided cases from State Courts. The ensuing impact of such publications in the administration of justice is unimaginable. If ignorance of the law must continue to remain an untenable excuse to breaking the law, all steps must be taken to publicize the law. Law reporting or case publication is one of the ways of achieving this goal in each State of the Federation.

*Upper Customary Court Judge, Kaduna State, Nigeria. [email protected] 14 August, 2023

** Lillian Okenwa, ‘How a Former CJN Preferred Nweze to Other Supreme Court Nominees from the S’East’ Law and Society Magazine (Abuja, 7 August 2023) Accessed August 12 2023