Former NHRC Chairman, Prof. Chidi Odinkalu, has criticized the Nigerian judiciary and the National Judicial Council (NJC) over a lack of transparency in appointing judges.
He accused the NJC of favoring relatives of influential figures in the judiciary before requesting public input on candidates.
Odinkalu questioned the NJC’s ability to process feedback effectively and warned that without credible assurance, people may hesitate to participate.
His comments follow the NJC’s release of 80 nominees for judicial positions across various courts.
Odinkalu said, “The @njcNig has released names of 80 candidates for judicial office in superior courts of record, including 53 to the High Court; 20 to Sharia Courts of Appeal; 7 to Customary Courts of Appeal & 2 state CJs. That’s useful but far from enough.
“The announcement by @njcNig invites the public to provide information or feedback on the candidates within 14 days & rightfully warns that spurious or false information will attract consequences. It also provides an e-mail address for those interested: [email protected].
“There are some issues that @njcNig must address. 1st, the announcement does not disclose what will follow at the end of the 14 days. Ppl who don’t have a credible assurance as to how information that they provide will be handled, are unlikely to respond with enthusiasm.
“2nd, it’s not clear that @njcNig has the capacity to credibly handle or process a possible deluge of #OpenSource information of the kind it is asking for in the digital age. While the intention may be good, the process needs to be more carefully thought through if it’s to help.
“3rd, previous experience lends credence to these. It was a requirement until now that the Council had to invite feedback on appointment rounds from @NigBarAssoc. In most of the appointments in the tenure of the immediate past #CJN, nothing was done with the comments from NBA.
“Indeed, in 1 particular round of appointments into a popular High Court in the country in the past 2 yrs, the request to @NigBarAssoc went out as the process formally closed. Then the responses as well as the applications of candidates who were not insiders went into the bin.
“As it turned out, the “slots” had all been allocated to the sons, daughters, wives & relatives of some “owners of the judiciary” & the process of inviting @NigBarAssoc to comment was a cover for affording a figleaf of legitimacy to brazen looting of judicial appointments.
“What needs to change is more than just inviting the public to send comments to @njcNig with no indication as to what happens next. If @njcNig wants to be taken seriously, it needs to show a capacity to process what it’ll get & the will to assure that what it gets will matter.”
