Nigerian democracy

Independence of Judiciary, victory for democracy Sunday, Jul 8, 2007 For more than three decades of military rule, the judiciary was under siege. There was a deliberate attempt to emasculate this arm of government. Judicial officers were covered by the barrel of the gun. The not-so valiant judicial officers were enfeebled and corruption was introduced in the national€™s temple of justice. There were vituperations against the judiciary but there was hardly much that the judicial staff could do because they were human. The military churned out decrees and edicts â€"retrospective and nonsensical. Everybody was coerced into obedience. Sometimes, the jurisdiction of the courts was ousted by Decrees and court orders were disobeyed with impunity. Also, Kangaroo tribunals manned by those ubiquitous judicial officials became the order of the day. In all the travails of the judiciary, some valiant judicial staff stood their ground and peered into the mist for the new dawn. Fortunately, there are indications that the new dawn has come. With eight years of democracy, there is no gainsaying that the judiciary has witnessed great transformation. That is why many Nigerians are happy with these developments. Thanks to the velour shown by judicial officers within the last eight years. The Chief Registrar of the Rivers State Judiciary, George Omereji Esq, who spoke with The Tide On Sunday, bared his mind on these and many other issues. Mr. Omereji, a university of Lagos graduate of Law is one of the icons of the state judiciary. Having spent more than 20 years on the Bench, Omereji is best described as an institution of a sort. Until his appointment as the chief registrar, in 2005, he was a chief magistrate in the state judiciary. Speaking about the independence of the judiciary, the icon noted that the judiciary had attained independence within the last eight years of democratic rule. He pointed out that the national€™s ex-President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo had taken many cases to the court and lost, which were clear indications that the judiciary was independent. He noted that the recent Supreme Court decision on the Anambra governorship election conjures a picture of an independent judiciary and stated that such landmark decision was unprecedented in the history of this country. According to him, the court has proved that the judiciary is truly independent. On whether the judiciary could be adjudged to have arrived, Mr. Omereji said; “In every human endeavour, there is always room for improvement. Even in the advanced democracies like America and Britain, there are still rooms for improvement. I can tell you that the judiciary is independent.” He remarked that there was a whole lot of difference between the judiciary under the military and judiciary under civil rule. According to him, under the military there was no legislature, it was only the judiciary that was in existence. He said the military was fond of disobeying court orders and arrogated to themselves powers that they did not have. Mr. Omereji, however, explained that under the present democratic experience, the judiciary has been playing a serious role. As a result of the role the judiciary is playing people have built confidence in the judiciary, he said. He hailed the role the judiciary was playing and landmark decision of the Supreme Court on the Anambra case as victory for democracy. In terms of justice delivery in the state, the Rivers State Judiciary has made a plethora of innovations. According to Omereji, the judiciary has acquired Verbatim Recording Equipment, which records proceedings of the courts although he said the outright use of the machine was hamstrung by an enabling law. “But the problem is that the law has not been amended where the verbatim recording equipment will be put into official use,” the chief registrar said. Consequently, he said the machine was still being used alongside the longhand Mr. Omereji told The Tide on Sunday that the judiciary was on the verge of acquiring a state-of â€"the- art Verbatim Recording Equipment (VRE) which records both audio and video. According to him, the new machine will record gestures and other mannerisms and one can play it back if one desires. “If they want any reference they can plug it back,” he pointed out. He gave kudos to the Odili administration for providing an enabling environment for justice delivery. He thanked him for the new Judiciary Office Complex, which he described as magnificient edifice, and expressed confidence that Barr. Celestine Omehia, the new governor of Rivers State, who is a lawyer would do better. The chief registrar pointed out that as a lawyer, Governor Omehia would better appreciate the problems of the judiciary. On why cases lingered in court for years, Mr. Omereji said the high court civil procedure rule 2006, “makes provision for frontloading of all the things you want to say in court and because of frontloading cases are easily disposed off there is no more incidence of cases lasting for ten years and any lawyer who is not serious is not even going to cope with the new high court rules.” He said that Alternative Dispute Resolution, where judges referred some cases to some persons to decide, has also made it possible for cases to be decided speedily. The chief registrar observed that the Nigerian judiciary was the last hope of the common man. He remarked that the judiciary had done justice to both political and individual cases for the last six months, therefore would continue to be the last hope of the common man. “But for the judiciary many of us would have been languishing in detention”, the judiciary icon noted. On the Nigeria Universities Commission’s policy to make law a second degree, the registrar said he would not question the policy of the NUC but reasoned that it could be a sort of control measure since the number of lawyers turned out from the universities is on the increase. He said there were so many lawyers in the country but observed that they were not enough for the needs of the populace. He, however, declined to query the policy of the NUC until he understood the reason for the policy. Mr. Omereji blamed the low quality of law graduates on the society as he observed that the quality of education had fallen in the country. It is a society issue and not peculiar to the lawyers, the chief registrar noted. He said that was not enough reason for making law a second degree in other fields had not performed convincingly and pointed out it might not be because the lawyers who did not have the first degree in other fields performed abysmally. “It is the Nigerian society as a whole. Morally, education is not what it used to be,” he said. He nonetheless expressed optimism that the system would improve.