El-Rufai: Having unitary judiciary in a federation an anomaly

Nasir el-Rufai, governor of Kaduna state, has called for the decentralisation of the judiciary to fast track justice delivery in the country.

El-Rufai made the call when Olumide Akpata, national president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), paid him a courtesy call on Tuesday, in Kaduna.

Citing an example where a high court judge handles about 250 cases, el-Rufai said the heavy case load of high court judges is hindering effective administration of justice.

“It is an anomaly to have a unitary judiciary in a federation, I am one of the major advocates of the decentralisation of our unitarist judiciary to a federal one,” el-Rufai said.

“We are pushing for the creation of state judicial councils that will handle the appointment of high court judges in states, because that is the only way that we will be able to take our fates in our hands.

“I believe that we have enough lawyers in the public and private sectors in Kaduna state to get 20 judges tomorrow if the state judicial council screens them and makes their recommendations.

“But we are constitutionally constrained as we speak.

“I have been making cases for the national judicial council to double the number of high court judges in Kaduna state, which will reduce the case load to about 100 per judge, which is still too high.

“I am happy that the national assembly has started the process of removing the bottleneck and I urge the Nigerian Bar Association to openly support it.”

The governor said this will give more opportunities for qualified lawyers in the private and public sectors to be part of the judiciary.

The governor also said “bringing in outsiders always brings innovations and new ideas to improve the system”.

“I do not believe that the only path to being a high court judge is to be a magistrate or state counsel,” he said.

“There are many other paths as other countries have shown and have produced excellent judges at all levels.”

On capacity building, the governor said his administration has been committing two percent of its federal allocation on training of civil servants, including lawyers.

Earlier, the NBA president said he was in Kaduna to interact with lawyers to bridge the disconnect between the national body and its branches.

“I am here to bridge that gap, talk to them and understand the challenges in the bar,” Akpata said.

Akpata said the NBA will partner the state government on capacity building for lawyers.

“The key issues are welfare and capacity building which we must ensure and the issue of harmonised salary scheme which was agreed to by office of the attorney-general,” he said.

The NBA president’s visit to el-Rufai comes months after the association withdrew its invitation to the governor to speak at its annual general conference following an outcry by some lawyers who said the governor stands against what the profession represents.