President Muhammadu Buhari has decried the delay in dispensation of justice in Nigeria, recommending that civil cases should not last longer than 15 months while criminal cases from the High Court to the Supreme Court should be concluded within 12 months.
Buhari made the suggestions at the 60th Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), with the theme, ‘Stepping Forward.’
The President, who was represented virtually by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo expressed regret that justice administration in Nigeria courts is “terribly slow” and needed urgent reform.
He recalled that it took too long for the courts to hear and determine the petitions he filed to challenge his losses in the 2003, 2007, and 2011 presidential elections.
The President recalled: “At the end, I lost all three cases. I wondered then, why it needed to take so long to arrive at a verdict and if I had won the case, someone who did not legitimately win the election would have been in office all that time.
“In 2019, I was no longer petitioner; I had now become a respondent in the case of Atiku vs Buhari and the whole process took barely six months; just over six months.
“What was the difference? The law had changed since my own in 2003, 2007 and 2011. You had now introduced time limits for election petitions. Everything must be done within a six to eight-month period.
“My question then is why can’t we have a time limit for criminal cases? Why can’t we have a rule that will say a criminal trial all the way to the Supreme Court must not exceed 12 months? And why can’t we do the same for civil cases? Even if we say that civil cases must not go beyond between 12 and 15 months. I think that for me will be stepping forward.”
He also condemned multiple and conflicting court orders, judicial technicality as well as the lack of transparency in the appointment of Judges.
“Justice must make sense to lawyers and non-lawyers alike, as a matter of fact, more to non-lawyers because we are in the majority. Triumph of technicalities opens a door for all sorts of speculations about the true motives of the court and can only detract slowly but surely from the authority of our courts.
“My fourth issue is on the appointment of Judges. I believe that you must continuously improve on the selection processes for the appointment of the men and women who will serve as judges. We must cast our nets wider in search of Judges especially at the appellate level. We must put in place primarily merit-based selection processes including mandatory tests and interviews for all applicants for judgeship.
“While our Constitution urges federal character for ballots in appointments generally, this is not an excuse for mediocrity”, the President posited.
Speaking in the same vein, the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad tasked lawyers to always strive to improve the legal system.