‘Supreme Court must be consistent’

Decisions of the Supreme Court of Nigeria should as much as possible not conflict with one another, says Prof Koyinsola Ajayi (SAN).

Ajayi, who spoke against the backdrop of the court’s two recent decisions on the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA)’s Stamp and Seal Policy, said for Nigeria’s judicial system to catch up with that of the rest of the world, there must be consistency of judicial decisions.

He said: “When you consider what two full panels of the Supreme Court in a period of two weeks said about the stamp and seal policy of the Nigerian Bar Association, it certainly leaves cause for great concern, because I believe on October 15, in a political case, a full panel of the Supreme Court said failure to have a seal on a court process doesn’t matter and on October 27, it said it is fatal.

“Now, clearly, one of the reasons why we have the courts is so that we can have certainty and predictability in what we do, and where our courts are inconsistent, and not just inconsistent but clearly inconsistent within a period of two weeks in a calendar month in respect of political cases, then we need to begin to speak to ourselves.

“And it’s not just the judges, it’s also the lawyers because obviously it’s lawyers that proffer these arguments before the courts. Good practice requires lawyers to be faithful to their calling, they are called learned and noble, therefore lawyers should always do what they can to aid the court to achieve justice.”

The latter of the two decisions that the learned silk referred to is the judgment delivered on October 27, 2015 in Appeal No. SC/722/15 All Progressives Congress (APC) V. General Bello Sarkin Yaki, where the Supreme Court declared that lawyers in the country must affix the NBA Stamp and Seal on any legal document that they intend to tender for legal transactions.

By this decision the court affirmed that “If without complying with the mandatory provision of Rule 10(1) Rules of Professional Conduct for Legal Practitioners 2007 which requires a lawyer acting in his capacity as a legal practitioner, legal officer or adviser of any government department or ministry or any corporation, who signs or files a legal document to affix on any such document a seal and stamp approved by the Nigerian Bar Association, the document so signed or filed shall be deemed not to have been properly signed or filed.”

The court, therefore, declared that the signing and or filing of a legal document will be incompetent.

On which of the two decisions lower courts should follow, Professor Ajayi said: “The problem is, this is two full panels of the Supreme Court within a period of two weeks. The problem here is that the Supreme Court itself has no controlling authority on what to do.

“We have Supreme Court decisions that say if you have two of its conflicting decisions, one says follow the one that is later in time, another one more or less says take the one you like. So, we have a problem. Someone has to create clarity as to which way to go.”