Justice Mahmud Mohammed
He succeeds Justice Mariam Alooma Mukhtar, who bowed out on attaining the statutory retirement age of 70 years.
At his confirmation hearing in the Senate, Justice Mohammed made clear his opposition to the creation of special courts to try corruption cases. According to him, prosecuting corruption cases has less to do with the kind of courts as with the personnel and counsels involved in the process. He said that determining corruption cases is weighted heavily on the side of prosecutors, given his experience as one for many years, and that there was no reason why cases should last more than three months if prosecutors did their job well. Identifying such challenges is one thing; taking concrete measures to address them is quite another. Like his predecessors, Justice Mohammed has correctly identified some of the ills of Nigeria’s justice system. What he needs to do now is to sustain and strengthen measures already in place to deal with them. The idea of disposing of cases within three months looks sufficiently attractive to focus on.
At his confirmation hearing in the Senate, Justice Mohammed made clear his opposition to the creation of special courts to try corruption cases. According to him, prosecuting corruption cases has less to do with the kind of courts as with the personnel and counsels involved in the process. He said that determining corruption cases is weighted heavily on the side of prosecutors, given his experience as one for many years, and that there was no reason why cases should last more than three months if prosecutors did their job well. Identifying such challenges is one thing; taking concrete measures to address them is quite another. Like his predecessors, Justice Mohammed has correctly identified some of the ills of Nigeria’s justice system. What he needs to do now is to sustain and strengthen measures already in place to deal with them. The idea of disposing of cases within three months looks sufficiently attractive to focus on.
He was unsparing in blaming both the bar and the bench on the vexing issue of the prevalence of conflicting judgments by courts, some of parallel jurisdiction. He accused both of unwillingness to quickly end cases. Justice Mohammed observed that judges were not infallible and could make mistakes, but added that such lapses could easily be tackled.
Expressing his support for the separation of the office of the Attorney General of the Federation and that of Minister of Justice, the new CJN told Senators that while the duties of the Attorney General are strictly professional; the minister’s are basically partisan politics. It was a sensible opinion that has been expressed over the years by knowledgeable people who have cautioned against vesting both in one political appointee. Justice Mohammed said that separating the two offices would allow for quick, unhindered and proper administration of justice. Although this aspect of his submission reflected part of the recent proposed amendments to the Constitution, legislative procedures that would make it a law should be concluded without further delay.
The new CJN would no doubt be faced with greater challenges in the country’s creaking criminal justice system. While judges should be held to account for unduly long periods of adjournment during trial of criminal cases, prosecuting police officers share a larger part of the blame for their reticence to undertake painstaking investigations, in addition to their use of illegal means to coerce suspects to confess to crimes. Besides making themselves scarce at scheduled hearing of cases, some prosecutors, perhaps due to improper filing, allow cases to drag on interminably until they get transferred from one duty post to another. This practice sometimes leads whoever takes over the case to start all over again. Prison officers may fail to bring suspects to court for administrative and logistic excuses as flimsy as lack of fuel or vehicle breakdown. Lawyers on their part use legal technicalities to delay trial of suspects. Put together, these and other legal shenanigans add to delay in the dispensation of justice.
Justice Mohammed should take this as one of his priorities in building on the reforms of the judiciary started by his predecessors, including sanctioning judicial officers that err. To support the new CJN in this task, senior lawyers especially the Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs) should refrain from defending judges accused of corruption because this could be counterproductive to the ongoing reform agenda in the judicial system.
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