*Says Persons With Less Than Five Years To Retirement Should Not Be Appointed To Apex Court
*Calls On BOSAN And NBA To Take Legal Action Over Systemic Discrimination Of Private Lawyers And Academics In Appointment Process
![](https://thenigerialawyer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/2026-IDRI-Masterclass.png")
A Senior Advocate of Nigeria and Former Chairman of the NBA Abuja branch, Mazi Afam Osigwe SAN has faulted the current process for appointment of Justices to the Supreme Court, blaming it for the frequent depletion in numbers of Justices on the Apex Court bench.
He said this in an interview on African Independent Television where he shared his thoughts on issues affecting the Nigerian judiciary.
Mazi Afam who is also a Former General Secretary of the Nigerian Bar Association faulted the exclusion of Lawyers in Private Practice and the Academia from nomination and appointment to the Supreme Court describing it as “unconstitutional”.
He said, “That’s where I chuckled to myself whenever the leadership of the Nigerian Bar Association thanks the Chief Justice of Nigeria for telling the NBA to recommend suitable persons for appointment as Justice of the Supreme Court. We don’t need to thank any person because the Constitution makes it a clear thing. We need to start looking at the guidelines for appointment of judicial officer for Superior Courts of Nigeria which in some cases queues it in favor of serving judicial officers for the appellate courts.
It is unconstitutional if it seeks to exclude or if it is not there in the guidelines. If there’s a Judicial policy or an administrative policy either within the FJSC or NJC that discriminates against persons who are in private practice or who are the Academia, then it should be challenged in Court because it is unconstitutional and maybe too in considering persons for appointment you made reference to the short stay of Justices, We haven’t got there but it is an elephant in the room.”
According to him, the reservation of appointment to the Supreme Court for Appellate Court Justices is responsible for the frequent vacancies in the Apex Court, and argued that persons who have less than five years before retirement should not be appointed to the Supreme Court as it results in gaps in justice delivery.
He said, “In fact there was a time, because we may actually be looking at the wrong in the wrong direction or the wrong person, there was a time a person was appointed to Supreme Court and spent only three months in the court. So it gives the impression that people have just being appointed to Supreme Court so that they must have added their career in some cases. Maybe there should be a policy of not appointing persons who will not spend at least five or ten years in that court because if you are to spend about two years or three years, before you finish settling down you’re already getting ready for your retirement.”
He dismissed the notion that members of the Academia and Private Legal Practice are not eminently qualified to sit on the Supreme Court as Justices, and called for a review of the appointment process of Justices to the Court rather than the cliché complaints about the declining number of Justices, workload, etc.
He stressed that these issues which seem to plague the Supreme Court perennially can be easily solved by revising the procedure for appointment into the Court, and an abandonment of the practice which places Court of Appeal Justices as exclusively entitled to promotion to the Supreme Court.
“In 2020 the number of Justice fell below about 10 or 11, if you recall. In October the Senate approved the appointment of eight more Justice which included Justice Aboki. By August of 2022 the number has dropped again to 13. So The Frequency of retirement, if you added 8 in 2020 and in 2022 you’ve gone down again to 13 then there’s something wrong with the appointment that makes people to have a short stay and every time we are lamenting about the declining in the number of the Justices, the pressure of work, the fact that we don’t have the full complement of the Court. How about appointing people in such a manner as to reduce the frequency of the vacancy in the court?, How about appointing persons who will stay longer in the court? How about appointing persons who do not have to have become presiding Justices in the Court of Appeal before they get to the Supreme Court? Why do we have this mindset that you have made money in private practice, you now want to come here again, we have been suffering, it is our turn to get to the Supreme Court?”
Mazi Osigwe also pointed to the United States of America as reference for Nigeria’s judiciary, stressing that the current Chief Justice of America was appointed Chief Justice from outside the Supreme Court.
He noted, “It is not about turn, it is about quality of Justice and when people talk about inbreeding is the fact that Outsiders and I use that word advisedly, people in private practice, in the academia are not being brought into the Supreme Court.
Look at the U.S Supreme Court, some people come from the academia, Some people come from private prosecution or they used to work in Justice sector and they are appointed there. The current Chief Justice of the United States was not a Justice of the Supreme Court, he was appointed straight to become the Chief Justice. Maybe we should look at some of these things.”
He further charged the Body of Senior Advocates (BOSAN) and the NBA to take legal action against the NJC and FJSC for what he termed the “discrimination of private lawyers in the Supreme Court appointment process”.
He said, “That’s why I suggested that instead of maybe BOSAN and the NBA instead of always lamenting at the court that lawyers in private practice are not being considered maybe we should take a Judicial action to challenge this particular thing because the Constitution does not allow you to embark in actions that are discriminatory. If in the running of the shortlisting process of the FJSC and the NJC it has been seen to be discriminatory against persons by reading into Constitution disqualifying grounds not included there, maybe it is time we considered taking up action in that regard but if you ask me too on a different note, the court need a change in its mode of appointments and we must agree that the time to start making that changes is now. We can’t continue to pretend that unless you are a judicial officer, you’re not fit to sit on the Supreme Court bench.”
[A MUST HAVE] Evidence Act Demystified With Recent And Contemporary Cases And Materials
Available now for NGN 40,000 at ASC Publications, 10, Boyle Street, Onikan, Lagos. Beside High Court, TBS. Email publications@ayindesanni.com or WhatsApp +2347056667384. Purchase Link: https://paystack.com/buy/evidence-act-complete-annotation
______________________________________________________________________ “Enhance Legal Practice With Authoritative Reports” — Alexander Payne Offers Comprehensive Law Reports, Spanning Over A Century Of Nigerian Jurisprudence
Interested buyers are encouraged to place their orders and enquiries via:
0704 444 4777, 0704 444 4999, 0818 199 9888
Website: www.alexandernigeria.com
