By Sola Akanni
Having reviewed the Supreme Court Alteration Bill 2020 (SCAB), here are some of my observations:
1. The proposed creation of a Federal Court of Appeal, is to introduce another tier into the hierarchy of Courts which will allow non-judicial officers to enter the pyramid of Courts at the highest level, even the Supreme Court, without any judicial experience.
2. The proposed State Courts of Appeal, even if more are created, will be inferior to and lesser than the Federal Court of Appeal, even though the latter only deals with matters exclusive to it, as enumerated in SCAB or coming from Federal courts.
3. The State Court of Appeal will likely then be where most judicial officers from the State High Courts, end their careers.
4. By virtue of SCAB, the State High Courts will also be rendered ‘low enough’ in the hierarchy, to be virtually like ‘Magistrates’ Courts’ in the hierarchy of courts.
5. Most of the matters to be dealt with by the Federal Court of Appeal are ‘Federal matters’ of which State High Courts do not have jurisdiction, thus, elevating High Court of the Federal Capital Territory and the Federal High Court, and even more ridiculous, the National Industrial Court of Nigeria, the baby of yesterday that was recently elevated to the status of a Superior Court of Record, higher than State High Courts. This is in addition of endowing the Federal Court of Appeal with jurisdiction to determine the question as to the appointment of President and Vice President, to the exclusion of the State Court of Appeal.
6. SCAB will succeed in prolonging the process of appeal. There will be multiplicity of Federal and State Courts of Appeal, considering the fact that each State will have a State Court of Appeal and still have divisions of the Federal Court of Appeal.
7. Whilst the proposed SCAB will reduce the types of matters that need to be appealed generally (as leave is to be sought), especially to the Supreme Court, why is it that the Supreme Court is not/cannot be at its full constitutional complement of 21 Justices? At the last appointment, there were 20 Justices of the Supreme Court before the retirement of Honourable Justice Olabode Rhodes-Vivour, JSC and the death of Honourable Justice Sylvester Ngwuta, JSC.
8. The Proposed Bill smacks of creating jobs for the ‘boys’, as a result of the recent outcry of the calibre of Judges being ‘fed’ into the appellate courts – aka ‘man know man’, over merit. But, at the end of the day, the ‘policy and decision making’ courts – the Federal Courts – are still under the control of the Executive and the Politicians (the Legislature)! And, these Federal Appellate Courts courts are likely to be ‘fed’ by the lower Federal Courts! This is quite worrisome, since the Judiciary is meant to be the third arm of Government in the elementary doctrine of Baron de Montesquieu’s Separation of Powers, a check and balance on the two other arms of Government, not an offshoot of the Executive.
9. The power to dispose of applications for leave to appeal without oral hearing, is a good development of the SCAB. This would weed out frivolous appeals, and prevent the wastage of judicial time. However, discretion is still to be exercised, making the innovation uncertain.
10. The aim of any amendment should not just be to reduce appeals to the Supreme Court, but to the Appellate Courts in general. It would go a long way to reduce the number of appeals, if those applying to be elevated to the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria do not have to depend so much on appeals. The requirements for elevation should be a mixed bag of judgements, showing prowess at every level.
11. SCAB should have provided for each State to have its own Supreme Court as well, with appeals lying therefrom to the Federal Supreme Court, while appeals from the Federal Courts should go to the Federal Court of Appeal, and from there, to the Supreme Court.
12. SCAB is silent on who will run the Judiciary’s administration in the State. Will it be the President of the newly created State Court of Appeal or the Chief Judge of the State High Court, considering that the President of the State Court of Appeal will be senior in hierarchy?
13. Since the State High Court Judges may no longer be able to rise to Federal Court of Appeal, the existing State High Court Judges will contest for the few seats on their State Court of Appeal, therefore, essentially killing the ascension of Magistrates.
14. Restructuring is the answer. Each region should manage its own affairs up to its own Supreme Court like in the US, and only really epoch making important policy or constitutional matters will go to Federal Supreme Court.
15. There is a hidden agenda which must be thoroughly investigated as the whole SCAB seems to be geared towards benefiting certain groups in the country, predominantly the political class. We must guard against a ‘fait accompli’ being foisted on us.
Sola Akanni
