By Ben Atonko, Abuja

Despite the outcry against the conduct and performance of the judiciary, the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Olukayode Ariwoola on Monday, scored the third arm of government very high, stressing that “the judiciary, as it is today, is more deserving of public trust and confidence than ever before.

Ariwoola said this at the opening of the 2023/2024 new legal year and the conferment of the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) on 58 lawyers.

The judiciary has come under scrutiny in the recent past especially after judiciary pronouncements on political matters.

Only last week, the Court of Appeal sacked the governor of Kano State, Abba Yusuf of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP)) and declared the All Progressives Congress (APC)’s Nasiru Gawuna as the winner of the March poll.

But a Certified True Copy (CTC) of the judgment later emerged affirming Yusuf’s victory in the exercise, contrary to what was said in court. The court defended itself, saying it was a clerical error.

The Kano State Government described the clerical error in the CTC as “outrageously scandalous.”

Last month, a Supreme Court Justice Musa Dattijo Muhammad, at his valedictory session addressed what he observed as rots in the judiciary that have continued to affect the justice delivery system in the country.

Muhammad who was said to have pulled out from the seven-man panel that dismissed all the appeals that sought to remove President Bola Tinubu from office, accused the CJN of abusing the powers of his office.

According to him, there was abuse of powers in the judiciary and “continued denial of the existence of this threatening anomaly weakens effective judicial oversight in the country”.

He maintained that the decision not to fill the vacancies in the Supreme Court is deliberate — all for “the absolute powers vested in the office of the CJN and the responsible exercise of same”.

Yet Justice Ariwoola was upbeat with his brother justices as he counted their successes.

He said the Supreme Court handled 1,271 cases including motions and appeals in the 2022/2023 Legal Year.

 “Out of these, we heard 388 political appeals, 215 criminal appeals, and 464 civil appeals.

“Similarly, the court considered a total number of 49 criminal motions, 153 civil motions, and two political motions.

“Between Sept. 30, 2022 and July 11, 2023, the supreme court delivered a total number of 251 judgments. Out of these, 125 were political appeals, 81 were civil appeals and 45 were criminal appeals.

“Within the period under review, precisely 10 months duration, a total number of 91 rulings were delivered by the honourable court.

”To a very large extent, I will confidently say that this score-card is impressive, fascinating and appreciable in view of the unpleasant events that dotted the legal year, especially the attenuating number of justices on the supreme court bench, which has to do with some challenges that could not easily be surmounted by one arm of government alone.

“I attribute the tremendous successes recorded in the course of the last legal year by the honourable court to the doggedness exhibited by my industrious and team-spirited brother Justices and the general staff,” he said.

Ariwoola urged the new SANs not to take for granted the honour newly conferred on them, pointing out that they were successful out of 114 applicants.

“While 57 of the new SANs are from the advocate, only one emerged successful from the academics.

“As Senior Advocates of Nigeria, you now carry heavy burden on your shoulders from the moment you leave this courtroom, everything in you and about you will now be freely scrutinized and dissected by everyone that comes in contact with you.

“There is nothing like private life for you henceforth, as whatever you hitherto regarded as private life will now be treated as public life by members of the public; and there is nothing you can do about it.

“So, watch your utterances, watch your actions and watch the kind of company you keep, because you have already assumed the role of ministers of the court, as you are now expected to assist the court to attain justice, equity and fairness in all ramifications.”

The CJN called for respect of the rule of law and the holistic independence of the judiciary.

“The Judiciary, as it is today, is more deserving of public trust and confidence than ever before.

“If the faith of the people is to be maintained in the Judiciary, then judges must be above board, deliver justice without fear or favour.

“So, I admonish all of us to always be impartial in all our judgments,” he said.

He assured Nigerians that he would do everything possible to ensure that the apex court attains its full complement of 21 justices before he retires next year.

“Currently, there are just 10 justices on the bench of the apex court; the lowest in the history of the apex court.

“As soon as I assumed office on June 27, 2022, I immediately got down to work on this urgent and immediate need in particular.

“Though we have not gotten them on board yet, I can convincingly assure the litigant public that within a very short while, the Supreme Court will, for the very first time in its history, get the constitutionally-prescribed full complement of 21 Justices.

“That is one of the legacies I have been working assiduously to leave behind as it now seems that the court has been somewhat ‘jinxed’ from meeting its constitutional requirement since that piece of legislation was enacted several years ago.”

He admonished Nigerians on the imperative of being less litigious and be more disposed to alternative dispute resolutions to free the courts from some unnecessary cases which are over-stretching both human and material resources.