There have been some issues surrounding the number of the Justices of the Supreme Court of Nigeria and the effects of such on the number of cases being heard at the Supreme Court. This paper aims at proffering some clarifications on the maximum number of Justices prescribed by the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria-herein after referred to as the Constitution, the effects of such number on cases before the Court and makes recommendation for a better administration of justice. Section 230 of the Constitution provides thus
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‘.(1) There shall be a Supreme Court of Nigeria.
(2) The Supreme Court of Nigeria shall consist of —
(a) The Chief Justice of Nigeria; and
(b) such number of Justices of the Supreme Court, not exceeding twenty one, as may be prescribed by an Act of the National Assembly.’.
From the above provision of section 230(1) and (2) of the Constitution, in my humble view, it shows that the Constitution only prescribes the minimum number of Justices of the Supreme Court and not the minimum (the maximum which is 22 inclusive of the Chief Justice of Nigeria). This means that the number of the Justices of the Supreme Court can be less than the numbers prescribed by the Constitution and that the National Assembly has the power to make law amending the prescribed numbers by the Constitution after having complied with the mode of altering the provisions of the Constitution to make a number more than the 22 Justices of the Supreme Court which includes the Chief Justice of Nigeria. Furthermore, at the moment, there has been report that the number of the Justices of the Supreme Court has reduced drastically to 12 (though I am not sure whether this is true or whether this number is inclusive of the Chief Justice of Nigeria). This is definitely a vital reason for the backlog of cases being handled by the Supreme Court! How could 12 Justices of the apex court of Nigeria preside over a thousand numbers of cases?! It will definitely be very overwhelming! No wonder that regular matters (apart from election matters) take a number of years to be heard not to talk of reaching the stage of Judgment!
In my humble view, if the number of Justices of the Supreme Court would be 21 (not even to talk of less than that) then some appeals must end at Court of Appeal else, the number 21 must be increased upward. The only thought that I have on this recommendation (on the appeals to end at the Court of Appeal) is whether Justice is likely to be made at that stage having regard to the reason why the Constitution had prescribed such matter to proceed up to the Supreme Court of Nigeria?! For instance, why does appeal in election matter have to proceed up to the Supreme Court while other matters including matters on Chapter IV of the Constitution on the enforcement of fundamental rights will now have to stop at the Court of Appeal?! This issue is really a great challenge! I am of the humble view that justice is likely not to be satisfactorily served to the poor, the indigent and majority of Nigerians if those matters will have to be restricted to the Court of Appeal! This is likely to make the public see that only the rich’s cases are of concerns to ‘justice’ which shall only get to the Supreme Court! The result of this action will be that some of the members of the public are likely to seek self-help and proffer jungle justice as an alternative! This result is bad for this nation and for the administration of justice!
Finally, it is my humble recommendation that the best solution so far on this issue is for the lesser number of the Justices of the Supreme Court to be increased upward even more than the 22 (inclusive of the Chief Justice of Nigeria). This step will also follow all necessary budgetary allocations so that it will not lead to denying those Justices and the judiciary as a whole their entitlements/emoluments having worked to serve their father-land.
Email: hameed_ajibola@yahoo.com
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Authored by Ben Ijeoma Adigwe Esq., ACIarb (UK), LL.M, Dip. in Artificial Intelligence, Director at the Delta State Ministry of Justice, Asaba, Nigeria.
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