Supreme Court Justices: What CJN Should Have Done About Protest — Ozekhome

Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN has said the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Tanko Muhammad, should not have reacted the way he did to the protest of his brother Justices of the Supreme Court.

He said the CJN should have reassured the 14 serving Justices of the Supreme Court who protested about their deplorable working condition that he will take up their complaints with the seriousness they deserved.

The apex court Justices had in a leaked letter, revealed that there was no improvement in their working condition and the administration of the court, among other things.

“We demand to know what has become of our training funds, have they been diverted, or is it a plain denial?” the justices had asked.

But the CJN faulted his brother justices for airing their grievances in the public, adding that he was in the process of addressing their needs.

He stated that “the high cost of electricity tariff and diesel” which is used to run power in the court, “are a national problem.”

But Ozekhome, in a statement made available to our correspondent, stated that the CJN should not have been so defensive in his reaction, adding that he should have supported his brother justices to face the legislative and executive arm of government regarding upward review of budgetary allocation to the judiciary.

The senior lawyer stated that the CJN needs to pacify the justices, adding that before they wrote the protest letter, “they must have complained severally, and serially, quietly in secret, in the underground, without being heard, or their complaints being remedied.”

His statement partly reads:

“Recently, in an unprecedented manner in the 58 years annals of the Supreme Court of Nigeria , all the 14 serving Justices of the Supreme Court protested their horrific welfare and deplorable conditions of service to the Chief Justice of Nigeria ( CJN ).
“Who did this to this revered institution?

“The CJN, taking the issues seriatim through Isah Ahuraka, his spokesperson, said replied inter alia, that the apex court does not exist outside the economic and socio-political environment in which the country has found itself. It affects the apex court just as it bites everyone.

“The CJN may be right, based on facts available to him as the head of the third arm of government.

“However, it must be noted that the entire annual allocation meant for the Supreme Court is like a drop of water in an oasis.

“These Supreme Court Justices are members of the same society that we live in and they reside in it. They have their wives and husbands to care for; they have their children and teeming dependants to take care of.

“I do not believe that the CJN was arguing that because the parlous economy affects everybody, the Justices of the Supreme Court should perish. No. He may not have put it quite reassuringly.

“What I expected the CJN to have done is to have balmed their oozing bruises; bandaged their bleeding economic sores and say ‘’Ok, I have heard you loud and clear.

“I am going to take up your complaints and champion your cause before the executive and legislative arms of government, arms that have turned themselves into rampaging bulldogs.

“As the head of the Judiciary which is the third arm of the government, I will make sure that you have more allocation, your welfare enhanced and your life made better.’’

“So, I expect the CJN to take up this matter with the seriousness and urgency it deserves. The urgency of yesterday.”