PROTOCOLS

1. I thank My Lord, the Honourable, the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, the Honourable Justice John Terhemba Tsoho, OFR, FICMC, FIIP for the invitation extended to me to attend and address this Special Court Session to mark the opening of the 2023/2024 legal year of this court.

• I am aware that Your Lordships had since resumed judicial activities, but as this is the formal ceremony to mark the beginning of the new legal year, may I, respectfully, on behalf of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), formally and most warmly welcome Your Lordships back from the well-deserved rest and vacation. May I, equally, acknowledge and appreciate the Vacation Judges who dutifully held the fort; hearing and determining cases that required urgent judicial intervention, thereby ensuring that the wheels of justice were not completely halted while the Court was on vacation.

• Today’s event also serves as the opening ceremony of the week-long activities to mark the 50^th Anniversary of this Honourable Court. Permit me therefore, to seize this opportunity to wish My Lord, the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court; the Honourable Judges of the Federal High Court; the Chief Registrar; and all staff of the Federal High Court a Happy Golden Jubilee celebration.

• There is no gainsaying that the Federal High Court has come a long way; established half a century ago as the Federal Revenue Court, under the pioneering leadership of His Lordship, Hon. Justice Sigismund Olanrewaju Lambo, the Court has made notable advancements. From 5 Judges in one building in Lagos to 95 judges in 38 judicial divisions across the Country. The Court has also seen a few changes – ‘the President of the Federal Revenue Court’ is now the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court. In addition to this, no other Court’s jurisdiction has been the subject of controversy as much as the Federal High Court’s; it has been expounded over and again and the question is not yet completely settled. However, there is no denying that this Court has continued to make giant strides and to play a major role in ensuring stability in the polity; this Court has contributed a huge quota in the growth and expansion of our jurisprudence, and for that we are grateful to the members of the Court, both past and present, particularly the succeeding heads of Court, for the leadership they have provided that contributed to the growth and success of this court.

• Let me place it on record that this would be the last legal year ceremony of this Honourable Court that I will be addressing as President of the NBA. I am grateful to God Almighty for the privilege, and may I express my profound gratitude on behalf of the NBA to my Lord, the Honourable Chief Judge and all the Judges of this Court for the several invitations and the audience I have always enjoyed before this Court in my capacity as President.

• The new legal year ceremony is a practice in many common law jurisdictions all over the world. It dates to medieval England, when judges, in the new year celebrations, would adorn their ceremonial attire and take a two-mile walk from Temple Bar to Westminster Abbey for a solemn assembly to seek divine guidance and strength for the new year. This is a reminder to their lordships that Judges/Justices are representatives of God on earth performing divine functions over fellow mortals. The ceremony is also a time for stock-taking; today we listened to the Honourable Chief Judge apprise the Bar and other stakeholders, of the activities of the court in the previous legal year; the challenges, achievements, and the agenda for the new legal year. The Bar is particularly interested in these because they provide the necessary enlightenment that will foster understanding in our interactions with the Court in the coming year and beyond.

• I will not be wrong to categorise this court as one of the most over-worked in Nigeria. With Sections 29(5) and 83(14) of the Electoral Act 2022 that conferred exclusive jurisdiction on this court in pre-election matters, a lot fell on the shoulders of your lordships – loading your already overloaded docket. Your Lordships, as a result, are most deserving of the annual vacation of the Court and the appreciation of the Bar and other Nigerians for the sacrifices which your Lordships make in the discharge of the enormous responsibilities thrusted on the shoulders of your Lordships. I, therefore, on behalf of the NBA, formally welcome your Lordships once more from vacation, as we usher your Lordships with prayers to God Almighty for strength, wisdom, and courage, into another legal year.

• We are living in a time when the judiciary has become the subject of relentless public discussion and scrutiny more than any other time in the history of Nigeria. The accusations and name-calling have in recent times acquired a dimension that has become a source of grave concern and calls for action. And it is these accusations, unfounded as they may be or can be, arising from these political matters, that have largely shaped the public perception of the judiciary in Nigeria. 

• The responsibility of the legal profession to educate the Nigerian public on the state of the law cannot be overemphasized. It is a duty that cannot be ignored or treated with levity, as to do so will be to the peril of the entire nation. By educating the public, we help shape the expectation of the public with regards to the justice that we are called to serve either from the Bench or Bar to the people of Nigeria. And this responsibility or duty cannot be performed by any other person or profession. We cannot afford to shirk the responsibility, as the resultant effect of the abdication of this sacred duty is chaos and anarchy.

1. My Lords, we have come to a place in our legal history in Nigeria, that we must deliberately and consciously live as lawyers; live in line with our primary call as lawyers, encapsulated in the words of Sir Chritopher Sapara Williams, that “the legal practitioner lives for the direction of his people and the advancement of the cause of his country”. I say this because it is very apparent that we have, to a large extent, not lived in accordance with this statement. We have as members of the Bar failed to give the people direction. We have misinformed the public about the position of the law in several respects and particularly when it comes to electoral matters. We have allowed our sentiments and prejudices to dictate our engagement with the public, rather than our commitment to justice-the person to whom all lawyers are agents, whether on the Bench or the Bar. The Bench on the other hand, through the misconduct of a few, has allowed the perception that judges/ Justices are at the beck and call of politicians and litigants, to thrive and flourish in the consciousness and psyche of Nigerians, with the consequence that what we serve as justice to the people, is hardly accepted as such. Unless this negative narrative is decisively and radically dealt with, we may be heading for a situation where the people will resort to self-help and chaos and anarchy would become inevitable. I have raised this issue at every gathering of lawyers – Bench and Bar because the solution lies with us. And to achieve this, we must have regard to the statement by Sir Adetokunbo Ademola, CJN (of blessed memory) that “The respect in which the Bar in any country is held is the best indicator of the freedom in that country.”

1. These two statements highlighted above are profound and instructive, worthy of note and consideration. While the former speaks to all members of the Legal profession, the latter is specifically addressed to the Bar. We have a very critical role to play in society and it is time for us to live up to our calling as members of the legal profession by providing direction to our people and advancing the cause of this country, not our selfish goals.

1. Many unsavoury and inflammatory remarks have been made and are still being made by members of the Bar, denigrating, and clearly inciting the public against the judiciary. Well laid down principles of law are twisted, tweaked, or taken out of context just to serve personal interests and not the cause of justice. These are made by persons who either deliberately misinform the public or do so out of sheer ignorance, not only of the law but also of the facts on which the courts are called to apply the law – neither of these two scenarios is acceptable. If we must deal with this issue, which like I said requires a radical approach, your Lordships must unsheathe your coercive powers. It is not enough to award costs against counsel while such counsel still enjoys the right of audience even when they are in default of payment of the awarded costs. More strict measures must be adopted in dealing with matters of professional misconduct.

1. In the case of Buhari v. INEC (2008) All FWLR (Pt 459) 419 at 570 – 571, paragraphs F – D per Niki Tobi, JSC of blessed memory, had observed thus:

“It is sad that so much has been said in the newspapers of this country on the case. The new technology of Internet reporting has added to the comments, some of them doubting our integrity to do justice according to law. I regard them as blackmail, and I will not succumb to blackmail. …

The way politics in this country is played frightens me every dawning day. It is a fight to finish affair. Nobody accepts defeat at the polls. The judges must be the final bus stop. And when they come to the Judges and the Judges in their professional minds give judgement, they call them all sorts of names. To the party who wins the case, the Judiciary is the best place and real common hope of the common man. To the party who loses, the Judiciary is bad. Even when a party loses a case because of a serious blunder of counsel, it is the judge who is blamed. Why? …”

1. In the preface to the book, Judicial Activism in India by Dr G. B. Reddy, the learned Indian author, on the role of the Supreme Court of India, observed as follows:

“An Analysis of the judicial behaviour of the Supreme Court in the last two decades clearly shows that public adulation has not swayed the judges much and personal aggrandizement has been eschewed successfully, barring a few stray incidents. The judicial activism is no activism if it is not accompanied by judicial accountability. As Justice Robert Jackson of the United States Supreme Court said, “we are not final because we are infallible, we are infallible only because we are final”, the Supreme Court continues to be supreme but not infallible. ‘Another development that needs to be mentioned in this context is the exercise of contempt power by the judiciary in recent times. There have been a few occasions, when the judiciary appeared to have become a little oversensitive to constructive criticism. In the words of Justice Krishna Iyer “free speech is a fundamental right, so too free access to justice, to strangle both these freedoms because the courts are allergic to what they regard as savage criticism is to foster judicial tyranny or tantrum”. At the same time, it is always better to remember that, where the contemner is a foolhardy bully or literary terrorist against the judiciary, heavy corrective sword should be unsheathed.” (Underlining mine for emphasis)

I commend this approach to your lordships. For the many “judicial bullies and literary terrorists” in this country, this honourable court must, in the overall interest of the country, unsheathe its heavy corrective sword, accompanied with judicial accountability.

1. Let me make it abundantly clear, for the avoidance of any doubt, that I am by no means condemning in totality the criticism of judgements of court, however, as I have always said, such criticism must be constructive, done through well-researched articles, academic papers, books, scholarly debates, and panel discussions – not personal insults and attacks on the judicial officers. Indeed, this is the point at which legal scholars, experts in the areas concerned are expected to speak up, through articles and journals to state the proper perspectives of the law, set the record straight, or criticise decisions of court, and in so doing provide guidance and direction to the public in line with our responsibility as legal practitioners to provide direction to the people.

1. My Lord, the Chief Judge, permit me to now speak on what I consider to be the contribution of the bench to what has now become our experience. My lords, we all know that the ultimate Judge of the universe is God Almighty- the creator of the universe, Who is God all by Himself; not created and does not depend on any one or thing to be God. He is the self-existent One. The two attributes that flow from His Throne are righteousness and justice. Your lordships, as you all know, but allow me to serve this as a reminder, are representatives of God on earth, to dispense justice to the people (who are made in the image and likeness of God), based on the laws we have accepted to guide and regulate our conduct as a nation. My lords with respect, it is from this standpoint that your lordships are always called upon to dispense justice to the people in the discharge of your lordships’ adjudicatory functions. It is in this wise that your lordships must not only serve justice but must ensure that justice is seen to have been served. As a matter of fact, beyond these, your lordships are under an additional duty to persuade or convince the public for whom justice is served, that indeed, justice has been served in any given situation.

1. The point I am making here is that the job of dispensing justice can only be performed by the judiciary. The only other option would be for Nigerians to slip into self-help, with chaos and anarchy. For your lordships to perform this all-important function, the system has provided a set of rules, regulations, and code of ethics for judicial officers, the observance of which are meant to maintain the confidence of the public and to ensure that the product served by the Bench, is accepted as Justice.

1. With the fast decline of the public confidence in the judiciary, while the several allegations of compromise against the judiciary remain baseless, unfounded, and unproven, there is the urgent need for the judiciary to sit back, introspect, recalibrate, and relaunch itself in the opinion of Nigerians, with a renewed focus that will change the negative narrative, to elicit and command the confidence of the public. Judicial officers must take their oath and judicial code of conduct seriously; must avoid actions and omissions that will give the appearance of compromise. Like Ceaser’s wife, judicial officers must be above suspicion – they must live above reproach. Proven cases of judicial misconduct must be dealt with decisively.

1. In a lecture titled Dissenting Judgements and Judicial Law Making, in honour of Hon Justice Adolphus Godwin Karibi-whyte, JSC (of blessed memory) at the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, His Lordship, Hon Justice G. A. Oguntade, JSC, had this to say: 

“A judicial system thrives when by its judgement, it instills confidence in the larger society that it is fair, impartial, and corruption-free in the adjudicatory process. A judiciary that is weak, corrupt and unreflective of the people’s aspiration is irrelevant to the people and doomed to collapse with time.”

• All these, I must say, can only be achieved where there is synergy between the Bench and the Bar. Acts of professional misconduct by members of the Bar must be condemned and punished. The Bar will also pursue cases of judicial misconduct and ensure that they are dealt with appropriately by relevant agencies and/or authorities.  This must be our common goal; the Bench and the Bar must collaborate in the fight to salvage the nation. We expect the Bench to expose any clear case of professional misconduct by members of the Bar, while on the other hand, the Bar must ensure that all efforts are made to expose provable allegations of judicial corruption. Those members of the Bar who claim judges/ justices collect bribes, should quit being cowards and make bold to present the evidence to law enforcement agencies and the National Judicial Council. It is a sacrifice we must make to save the nation. I therefore call on the judge who alleged that a senior counsel attempted to bribe the Tribunal in Kano to forward the particulars of the counsel to us for disciplinary action. If this cannot be done, because the allegation was unfounded, the Bar demands an apology just as I have severally done for the unwarranted hurt caused your lordships by members of the Bar.

• Let me turn my attention to other challenges facing the judiciary and the justice sector. There is something fundamentally wrong with a justice system that shuts down at the end of every electoral cycle. In the case of the Federal High Court, with the Electoral Act 2022 domiciling all pre-electoral disputes in this court, it meant that several of your lordships could not attend to any other cases, including commercial disputes, until after the pre-election matters were disposed of. Something must give. I reiterate my proposal to the National Assembly to consider establishing a Court that will deal mainly with electoral and other related matters, which Court should be of coordinate jurisdiction with the Federal High Court, State High Court, and High Court of the FCT. Appeals from the decision of that Court would lie to a constitutional court to be similarly established. Also, except for matters in which the constitutional court would have original jurisdiction in respect of which appeals would lie to the Supreme Court, the constitutional court shall be the final court with respect to matters it would entertain in exercise of its appellate jurisdiction. This will allow specialisation of the court and this Court, like other courts, will be allowed to concentrate on its specialised jurisdictions.

• Finally, My Lord, the Honourable, the Chief Judge, Honourable Justice Tsoho, and My Lords the Honourable Judges of this Court, on behalf of the Nigerian Bar Association, I wish Your Lordships a very productive and fulfilling legal year. I pray for sound health, divine strength, and everything needed to face the challenges ahead and carry out the task of justice delivery, effectively and efficiently. I pray that the Almighty God will continue to imbue Your Lordships with wisdom, knowledge, and the spirit of discernment to dispense justice to all those who approach this Honourable Court. Once again, I wish the Federal High Court a Happy 50^th Anniversary and many more years.

• I thank everyone present for listening and I wish you all the very best of the new legal year.

• May My Lords be pleased.

Yakubu Chonoko Maikyau, OON, SAN

PRESIDENT