Lazy Judges Will Be Shown The Exit Door – CJN

Henceforth, the National Judicial Council would use its performance evaluation reports to sack unproductive and lazy judges.

The Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mariam Aloma-Mukhtar, said this in a statement released on Sunday, warning that judges who do not deliver up to four judgments in a year risk sacking.

The statement by the Media Assistant to the CJN, Mr. Isa Ahuraka, quoted Mukhtar as saying this while receiving a report, titled, ‘Nigeria’s Judicial Performance Evaluation 2008 – 2011’, which was compiled in seven volumes by the Nigerian Institute of Advance Legal Studies.

According to the statement, the CJN was miffed that some judges are not able to deliver up to two judgments in a quarter, a situation which she described as absurd.

She also frowned on the prevailing situation, whereby most judges fail to commence court proceedings by 9am.

“We are now thinking of looking at the performance evaluation of the judges for the purpose of discipline. If a judge cannot deliver three to four judgments in a year, there is no use keeping him on the bench other than to be shown his or her way out,” she said.

Justice Mukhtar said she only discovered how bad the situation was after she directed all judges to seek for permission through their heads of courts before traveling abroad.

“The Nigerian Bar Association has also been complaining about the attitudes of judges to work these days. Many will leave their work and travel for days abroad. This is why I insisted they must obtain approval before traveling abroad.

“Until this directive, I never thought things were all that bad, because some of the judges will be seeking for permission to travel abroad while the courts were in session, despite the six weeks holiday they are entitled to in a year.”

The CJN observed that even though the judges are expected to commence court proceedings by 9am, there were several instances, where many of them did not resume work until 11am or 12noon, even when the litigants, their lawyers and witnesses might have been waiting inside the courts.

She added, “These litigants are human beings. They go to court sometimes with their witnesses and lawyers and were told that the judges were not around. Sometimes after coming to court without seeing the judges, they abandoned their cases in the court. It is not fair.

“These are part of the reasons the NJC undertakes performance evaluation from time to time, both at the trial and appellate courts to determine productivity of the judges and their courts in the states and the Federal Capital Territory. The Supreme Court is not exempted.”

Presenting the report, the Project Director and Director General of NIALS, Prof. Epiphany Azinge, SAN, said the work would go a long way to complement the CJN’s drive to cleanse the judiciary.