Purge yourself of corruption, Buhari tells judges….  CJN laments underfunding of arm.

President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday called on judges in the country to sanitize themselves of corruption in order to restore the trust in the judiciary. He, however, charged judges to resist the trend of corruption that is almost eating deep into the judiciary.
This was just as the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Mahmud Mohammed, noted that the little amount which is always allocated to the judiciary by the executive had made the arm not to be independent. Both the President and CJN spoke at the opening of the 2015 Judges’ Conference organised by the National Judicial Institute (NJI), Abuja.

Speaking on behalf of the president, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo (SAN) noted that: “Unfortunately in recent years, perhaps more than ever before, allegation of judicial corruption have become more frequent. “Some of the available surveys about public perception of the judiciary show that the judiciary is losing trust of Nigerian populace.

“This is danger indeed for our fledgling democracy. We respectfully urge the Nigeria judiciary to do all possible to fight against corruption. The judiciary should go extra mile to sanitize itself and improve its capacity.” The CJN decried the lack of independence of the judiciary. He said: “It is a source of great concern that in a country where an arm of government is appropriated with less than one per cent of the national budget, it is difficult to refer to our judiciary as being truly independent.

“The constitution prescribes the institutional independence of the judiciary under Section 6 of its provisions. Sections 121 (3) and 162 (9) further guarantee fiscal independence for the judiciary, a fact now acknowledged by the other arms of government with recent resolutions by the federal and some state governments to pay the judiciary its outstanding and future budgetary allocations as and when due.

“However, under the circumstances, the state judiciaries continue to encounter a further burden of facing difficulties in accessing these paltry funds from their executives in order to function.” The CJN urged the Executive and Legislature to remember that judicial independence is not only expedient, but also necessary to the country’s existence.

“It is this independence that gives credibility to the scales of justice and allows our citizens to rest assured that justice is indeed not for sale. For this reason, I call on the heads of other arms of government, in the spirit of the cooperation between us, to support the judiciary’s existence and I can assure you that it will flourish and grow,” he added.

In her own speech, the administrator of the Institute, Justice R.P.I Bozimo noted that the conference has always been a stock-taking event when judges from all over the country converge to reflect on their activities over a period of time, thereby providing an insight into what has been achieved.

“It also provides a platform to strategise on how to meet the important and critical challenges in the dispensation of justice to all in our great country.

“The All Nigeria Judges’ Conference is one of the most important functions of the National Judicial Institute. Section 3(2) c of the National Judicial Institute Act authorises the Institute to organise once in two years the All Nigeria Judges’ Conference of the Superior Courts. It is in fulfillment of this mandate that we are all gathered here again to participate in the 2015 All Nigeria Judges’ Conference,” she stated.