Disengaging Lay Men From The Bench By: Abdulrasheed Ibrahim

What used to be the yardstick for appointment to the presidency or membership of the customary court was that the appointees must have adequate knowledge in the custom as well as customary or native law of the people of the area. The new law in Lagos State has to some extent expanded the jurisdiction of the customary court. Also on 20th November 2018, the Chief Judge of Taraba State, Hon Justice Josephine Tuktur swore in 79 lawyers as judicial officers to preside over the Magistrate/ District Courts as well as the Area Courts. Anyone that is familiar with the happening in the Customary and Area Courts will surely appreciate and commend this development. What used to happen in various states until very recently is that these courts were presided over by lay men who are not well learned in law. In most cases, people with the Diploma in law or in some other fields presided in those courts. Although there is no denying the fact that there were people who while presiding in those courts tried to pursue Degree programs in law. Some states in the past put in place the standing rule that those who do not possess law degree will not be allowed to preside in the Customary or Area Courts. With lawyers now having to preside over these courts, one hopes that some of the ugly things that have been happening in those courts will soon become things of the past. Since these courts are grass root in nature, they are the sign posts that give perception to the ordinary man at the grass root level on what justice is all about at the high level either positively or negatively. This is more the reason why those lawyers now being appointed everywhere to preside in these courts must live up to expectation and be above board. They must all be good ambassadors of the judiciary. They need to strictly abide by the advice given to them by Hon. Justice Tuktur while quoting one Hon. Justice Dayken who said that: “There is no doubting the fact that the nature of the office and the functions the holders are required to perform calls for a high sense of duty, responsibility , commitment ,discipline ,great intellect, knowledge ,integrity ,probity and transparency .Anyone who gets appointed to the exalted position of a judicial officer without possessing those supreme qualities is sure to be an obstacle to justice according to law .For a dishonest or corrupt judge or a judge with little or no learning , can be a most dangerous clog in the wheel of the administration of justice.” Since lawyers who are deemed to be very knowledgeable in law are now replacing the laymen on the lower bench, the burden is now on the lawyers to show that they are fit and proper to be shouldered the responsibilities on the lower bench. Any of them with the aim of going there to make illicit money must realize that he or she has taken a wrong appointment. All those going to lower or higher bench must imbibe those fine qualities that had been identified in those great jurists who distinguished themselves while serving on the bench. In the book titled: LEGAL LUMINARIES which x-rays the law lives and times of 10 of the Nigeria’s great legal minds, the late Hon. Justice Adetunji Adefarasin, one time Chief Judge of Lagos State had this to say about his predecessor, the late Hon. Justice J.I.C Taylor: “He was the most upright judge that I have ever known and this fact is not only the view of his colleagues on the bench in the entire country but the public at large. He was loved and respected by men and women who sought redress in his court and was upheld for his upright life, his grasp of case before him and the impartiality of his judgment. They went away from his court completely satisfied that justice has been done to them even when they had lost.” Everyone is at liberty to live and work according to the way he or she wants to be remembered for. Our jurists on the bench must borrow a leave from this. GEJ’S TRANSITION HOURS Whether you agree or disagree with the former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (GEJ), I personally believe that he has succeeded where many of our past leaders have failed. You may be wondering what I mean by this. Precisely on 13th April 2015, I wrote in a Newsletter called THE BRIEFCASE under the caption: “Gowon’s Memoir Wanted” as follows: ‘When we talk about memoir, we are not talking about the third person narrative. In a recent launching of the biography of President Jonathan, General Gowon was reported to have felt uncomfortable about how the author bought into what he called Ojukwu’s wrong position on “Aburi Accord” arrived at in Ghana during the Nigerian Civil War. Gowon said Ojukwu misinformed Nigerians on the content of the agreement because Ojukwu arrived Nigeria before him as he felt sick in Ghana and stayed behind .This episode illustrates the reason why many former Nigerian leaders are getting it wrong for failure to write their own memoirs .At least Ojukwu wrote the book titled : “Because I was Involved”. Perhaps if Gowon had personally written one, the issue of misinformation would not have arisen. The Nigerian leaders should learned lesson from those great world leaders who had taken time to write their own personal memoirs as biographies are most time full of exaggerations. Did Mandela not write: “Long Walk to Freedom”?’ Of all past Nigerian Presidents or Heads of State, I have only come across the book titled: “My Odyssey” written by Dr. Nnamid Azikwe and recently “My Watch” written by Chief Olusegun Obasanjo .When OBJ was asked by PMB on what happened to the money billed for the electricity during his tenure, he told President Buhari to go and read the book. It was this same book some people in Afenifere wrote a rejoinder to and titled it: “Watch the Watcher”. Dr. Jonathan did not only indict the former American President, Barrack Obama and his Secretary of State, he blamed his failure in the 2015 election on some Northerners and PDP Governors who he said had “blind ambitions” to become President in 2015 and later left PDP to join the APC. Dr. Jonathan’s “My Transition Hours” has continued to generate reactions and controversies from different quarters. While Governor Shettima of Borno State has called it a work of elementary fiction and accused the author of concealing his (GEJ) government reports on Boko Haram and the kidnapped Chibok girls, Governor Tambuwal of Sokoto State, had said he never had any blind ambition but cross carpeted from PDP to APC because of his people’s yawning. According to a Northern Elder, Professor Ango Abdullahi, he said the North had no regret working against GEJ because Jonathan went against PDP policy to run for the Presidency in 2015. Whatever may be your own position on the book written by the former President, one thing that is certain and you cannot take away from him is that unlike Laurent Gbagbo of Ivory Coast and Yahya Jammeh of Gambia, he has taught African leaders the best way to accept electoral defeat and imbibe the spirit of sportsmanship in elections. I therefore congratulate Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (GCFR) on his new book and his reaching the age of 61.I wish happy birthday, long life and prosperity. I hope our other former leaders in this country will equally come up with their own memoirs or autobiographies. REMARKABLE PRONOUNCEMENT ON RIGHT OF CUSTOMARY LANDOWNER “Having given very careful consideration to the relevant Sections of the Act and especially to the provisions of Section 1, 36 and to the definition of “Holder” and “Occupier” in Section 50 of the Act, I am of the firm view that the Court of Appeal was in error to have come to that conclusion. In my view there is nothing in any of the Provisions of the Act (Land Use Act) that remotely suggests any alteration in the rights of the customary landlords and their customary tenants. If the legislature had intended to extinguish the rights of customary owners of land, it would have clearly said so in the Act.” Per KAWU, JSC in Abioye Vs. Yakubu (1991) 5 NWLR (Pt. 190) at Page 240 THE SETTLED PRINCIPLE OF LAW On what ought to be the attitude to proceedings before the customary courts “The law is well settled that the form of action in a customary court or tribunal and, indeed in other inferior courts of equivalent jurisdiction must not be stressed where the issue involved is clear and decisions on such should not be disturbed without very clear proof that they are wrong.” See Kwamin Akyin Vs. Essie Egumah (1936) 2 WACA 65; Solomon Johan Vs. Kojo Owu (1937) 3 WACA 170 at 171; OKUKUJE Vs. AKWIDO (2001) 3 NWLR (Pt. 700) Pg. 319 Para D For more Settled Principles of Law and Remarkable Pronouncements from our Supreme Court Jurists from 1956-2016, obtain or order for your copies of LAW PRACTICE KIT and LEGAL LUMINARIES. Call or text 08055476823, 08164683735 or email:rasheedibraheem68@yahoo.com. Your library is incomplete without these books.]]>