The Senate yesterday screened and confirmed Justice Dahiru Musdapher as the substantive Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN). He had been acting in that capacity for a month now.
Also, the Senate confirmed the nomination of Dairus Dickson as substantive minister to represent Taraba State in the Federal Executive Council (FEC).
Musdapher, 69, who was grilled by senators for about an hour, was appointed as the acting CJN on August 29 after the retirement of his immediate predecessor, Justice Aloysius Katsina-Alu, who had attained the mandatory retirement age of 70 on August 28.
Born in 1942 in Jigawa State, Musdapher became a Justice of the Supreme Court? in 2003 and had about eight months left to attain the mandatory retirement age of 70 by July 2012.
Answering questions from the senators, Musdapher reiterated that the judiciary needed cleansing. He had earlier made a similar speech at a ceremony last week to mark the beginning of new legal year for Supreme Court.
He told the senators, “It has to be admitted that the public is not very satisfied with the manner things are being done in the judiciary.”
He added that the problem could not be divorced from the society in which judges find themselves.
He said, “Most important is the issue that people seem to be aware of and talk about and that is the electoral matters. People always want to win because of obvious political reasons but by and large, the problem is not all that bad. It is the perception of people, who lose elections. But one has to lose and another wins.
?“Unfortunately, in this country, anyone who loses feels there is an influence somewhere but if anyone has any evidence of anything that was done wrongly by any judge, the National Judicial Council (NJC) will take action on that”.
Musdapher also spoke about the need to reform some of the political laws that would help address????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? some of the contentious political issues.
On whether the NJC acted right in the suspension Justice Isa Ayo Salami as President,? Court of Appeal (PCA), Musdapher? said it was not appropriate for him to offer any explanation or answer in a matter that was now before the court of law.
On the under-performance of judges, Musdapher said though the judicial body was not satisfied with the way cases were handled, he nonetheless blamed the government partly for not providing enabling environment and facilities for the efficient performance of judges.
He said, “The question about under performance of judges is true. We are not very much satisfied with the way cases are handled but it has to do with facilities given sometimes by the government. At the federal level, things are better compared to the states given the facilities at the Court of Appeal. It is at the state high courts that we find things a bit difficult. There is the need to amend political laws to make things easy for the Judiciary”.
Speaking on the appointment of judges, Musdapher? said, “Rules for appointment of judges have been with us since the establishment of the NJC and I think it is due for amendment. We are calling on the stakeholders to come with us and consider the amendment of that law so that appointment would be well defined.”
But Musdapher was non-committal on calls to raise the retirement age of judges just as? he considered it relevant. He ,however,? added that such an increase would depend on improved conditions of service and enabling legislation.
“Well, we are here, if the conditions of service are improved, maybe we may not retire at 70 and continue till the age of 75 but some people may not want to. For many of us who have put in over 40 years on the Bench, we would like to retire at 70 but that still depends on the legislators”, he said.
The new CJN also assured senators that he would fully restore public confidence in the judiciary, saying that, “I want to have a better judiciary as much as I can.”
He also admitted that there were still issues of infrastructural inadequacies and judicial dependence on the executive arm of the government in the nation’s judiciary system, especially in the states.
He said there were still problems with the state governments transmitting resources meant for the state judiciary to the system and most times, they have had to wade in from the federal system to beg state governors to release funds meant for the state judiciary.
Though Musdapher admitted corruption was? a serious issue in the country, he also held back his view on capital punishments for corrupt convicts, pushing it back to the lawmakers, saying that, “These are issues for the legislators”.
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