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Are 80% of judges below average? Lawyers, others react[/size]
Law & Human RightsDec 2, 2010
By Innocent Anaba, Abdulwahab Abdulah and Ikechukwu Nnochiri



The Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, last week started another controversy, when it said, at the inauguration of its committees in Abuja, that “the present NJC (National Judicial Council) records over the past seven years, only 20% of Judges are ranked as average or fairly good. The rest are simply not pulling their weight. These assessments are from empirical records.”
This clearly place 80% of judges in the country below average and of serious concern to any discerning mind. It is actually a serious matter to the ordinary Nigerian, if he or she is made to believe by the NBA, who quoted an NJC report, that eight in every 10 judges, before whom all manner of matters are brought for determination, are indeed below average and perhaps not fit for the job.
If the report is true, then it is also an indictment on the legal profession generally, because it is from the pool of practising lawyers, be them those in private practice, the various government agencies and the court itself, that judges are appointment.



If a lawyer is up and doing in his practice, he or she will certainly be a good judge, but if he or she is below average, certainly, no magic will improve him, after all, it is argued that you cant give what you don’t have. It also suggests that 80% of lawyers in Nigeria today are below average, at least in the last seven years, since that was the conclusion of the said NJC report, because it is the lawyers that end up at judges.
Even though some people may not be too surprised by this revelation, being that they are close to the system, many more ordinary Nigerians would be. The implications are just too many for one to ignore the report.
But with the way judges are appointed and manner of people appointed to the bench, one may not after all be too surprised. On the appointment of judges, which is one sure way this trend could be checked, retiring judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Akinjide Ajakaiye, speaking at a valedictory court session in his honour in Lagos, during the week, organised by the leadership of the Federal High Court, said “for the judiciary to be able to play the sacred role assigned to it very well, it must ensure that both the appointors and appointees to the bench are men of proven honour and integrity and most importantly those who have fear of God in them.
“Appointments should not based on sentiments, political considerations, neither should it be at the whims and caprices of the appointing authorities. Merit should no longer be sacrificed for mediocrity,” he added.
Justice Tajudeen Odunowo, another retired judge of the Federal High Court, had recently expressed the same concern, when he said “before independence, you don’t lobby to made a judge. But when we took over, I mean we Nigerians, people started going through the politicians to be made a judge. We have a lot of instances of people who are not suppose to be there, who are there.”

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2010/12/are-80-of-judges-below-average-lawyers-others-react/