Discordant tunes over elongation of judges’ tenure in office

• There should be life after retirement, Azinge says
• Judicial reform needs to be prioritised, by Oguche

Reactions have continued to trail President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s assent to the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria, (Fifth Alteration Act, No.37) 2023, that raised the retirement age of lower court judges by five years.

The law, which was the first to be signed by President Tinubu since he assumed office, elongates the tenure of judges of the High Court from 65 to 70 years.

The aim of the law, according to the Presidency, was to strengthen the judiciary and empower judicial officers.

Before the new law, only the Justices of the Appeal and Supreme courts retire at 70.

However, some lawyers appeared uncomfortable with the new alteration, on the ground that it may deny lawyers who desire to build careers in the bench timely appointments for lack of openings.

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria and former Director General, Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, Prof. Epiphany Azinge, raised some concerns over the development, especially with regards to the mental and physical health of judges.

According to him, the health of a judge should be a determining factor for staying beyond 65 years in service rather than making it a legislative decision.

Accepting that judges in other climes have the latitude of staying on the bench for as long as possible depending on their health and their desire to continue in office, that of Nigeria must be considered within the prevailing circumstances in the country.

“But we have to situate the position in Nigeria in context. In other words, what are the noticeable challenges confronting the judiciary and the judges on the bench? What are the implications on their health among so many others that possibly will necessitate their elongation on the bench and still being in a state of mind and mental health to offer the best of services possible?

“Regardless of a constitutional provision that indicates that some people can be qualified to be judges at the age of 10 in the Bar and in some instances, 15 years as the case may be, the least we can see is people coming to the Bench at 20 years to 25 years. In other words, not many people get into the Bench early enough.

“Again, it appears that we have in the past seen instances of falsification of age of judicial officers in a sense that perhaps, when people say they are 70, they have long passed that age. So, in a country you have such a scenario, when people say they are 65 years, they are all looking spent, gaunt and totally wearied, already tired and not in the state of mind to sufficiently grapple with the very tedious challenges of judicial work.

“They are unable to grapple with the scrutiny of the barrage of documentation that characterises the work of a judicial officer. Happily, we have seen some noticeable changes. We now have legal assistants for judges and one can posit that those people are in a position to help reduce the strain or burden of research and other support that can be offered to those who are going to write judgments,” he said.

Azinge’s position on the issue is that given that most of Nigeria’s judicial houses or offices are not yet what they are supposed to be – infrastructural deficit, lack of technological support and increasing level of litigations, judges are overburdened.

Therefore, rather than elongation of retirement age, he felt that one would have expected the government to consider appointment of more judicial officers and establishment of courts in various localities.

“If you take a clear record, you will find that in the whole of Nigeria, in the superior court, we don’t have more than 1,200 to 1,300 judicial officers. And when you talk about cases not being disposed of at a record time, one must not lose sight of the fact that we don’t have many judicial officers who are addressing some of those matters, and when you look at their performance evaluation, you find that the judges are overworked.

“A good number of them are posting high figures for the purpose of performance evaluation, yet, you still see a lot of backlog of cases. So, we have such a backlog of cases that cannot be compared to anywhere, not even in India. For me, I hesitate to imagine that the elongation of tenure of judges would be the solution to such problems.

“I believe that establishment of more courts and appointment of more judicial officers could be an option I consider much more tenable in the circumstance, if we want justice to be dispensed effectively without delay because I imagine that even our population of over 200 million people, 1,300 will not suffice,” Azinge argued.

According to him, Nigeria should be thinking of raising the number of judges to about 3,000, pointing out that a host of judges are tied down because of election cases every four years.

He added that more money needs to be given for the establishment of more courts, to contain the barrage of litigations that has become part and parcel of Nigeria’s judicial system.

“Ensure that people retire when they are supposed to retire so that they have life after service. Because a good number of judges, if they elongate to 70, God forbid, some of them would pass away while on the Bench or immediately they retire. I don’t think that ought to be the case,” he stated, adding that peculiarities of a people should be considered when certain decisions are being taken since Nigeria’s mortality demography is as low as 55 years.

He suggested that there should be a call for fresh medical examinations to determine whether a judge could continue to function, when he or she gets to 60 or 65 years.

Azinge stressed that it is not something to be legislated upon because some members of the Bench are already with health baggage, but would like to stay due to the benefits that accrue to them.

“So, it is a systemic issue that needs total overhauling and possible reforms. It should be the discretion of the judge subject to medical examination and others. It is not the same in America because they have the best of facilities, healthcare and judicial support.

“They are not terribly strained and their health issues are well attended to. So, even if they decide to stay till 80, we should not be in a comparative study of what happens there. I know that experience is very valuable but a better option would be to increase the number of judicial appointments and establish more courts and allow more people to come in,” he suggested.

Prof. Azinge also expressed worries that elongating the tenure of judges in office will mar the chances of junior lawyers who want to build a career in the judiciary.

“Another issue is the number of people that are called to bar yearly. It is between 4000 and 6000. These people are also looking forward to becoming judges and building careers in the judiciary. How long do they have to wait to become judges if people are retiring at 70? If you don’t create vacancies, people cannot come in,” he stated.

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and the Jagunmolu of Edeland, Chief Yomi Alliyu, who relayed his experience in Osun State, stressed that many Nigerians are still ignorant of the new alteration.

“Osun State Head of Service requested for the letter of retirement from the Chief Judge of Osun State from the Secretary to the Osun State Judicial Service Commission notwithstanding the current amendment to the Constitution, commanding him to bring it to his office. The HOS was acting on Governor Nurudeen Adeleke’s instructions.

“After, the said JSC Secretary had waited in the said HOS for hours and seeing that people had seen him there, the HOS asked the said Secretary to meet him at a road junction in Osogbo and they were seen together by witnesses who alerted the CJ of the ungodly meeting.