RichardDenning LP Richard Chukwuocha, in this interview with CHIJIOKE IREMEKA, speaks on the northern dominance of the Supreme Court over other regions and concluded that it was time stakeholders looked at the ‘anomaly’ with a view to redressing it.
Justice Mahmud Mohammed is the 14th Chief Justice of Nigeria after another northerner, Justice Mariam Aloma Mukhtar, vacated the office after attaining the statutory age of 70.Is the office meant exclusively for judges of northern extraction?
The northerners are promoted to the Bench at a younger age unlike the southerners, where people moved to the Bench well advanced in practice.
With age on the Bench, it becomes difficult for the younger ones because the hierarchy on the Bench is based on date of appointment as supposed to the date of call the Bar.
For instance, if I was called to Bar 20 years ago and another person, who was called to the Bar years after me but was elevated to the Bench before me, he has automatically become my senior. It’s the date of appointment to the Bench that determines seniority. And on the Bench, it’s seniority that regulates stratification.
In other words, the most senior judge becomes the administrative judge or becomes the Chief Judge or President, Court of Appeal as the case may be. So, due to the fact that the northerners get to the Bench younger than people from the south, it becomes possible for them to occupy such positions.
We have a number of CJN from the south that stayed two months and six months on the Bench before their retirement. This does not make sense. If you have been a judge of the High Court and opportunity came for you to be elevated to the upper Bench and you know that you are close to the age of retirement, the best thing is to hold back for a younger person to go.
When you accept that offer, you have blocked the opportunity of a younger person go- ing to such position. But this is where the northerners have advantage over us, the southerners.
This is why, when you come to judiciary high hierarchy, you discover that the northerners have been occupying the position of a CJN for long time and will continue to do so until the southerners decide to address the issue and begin to move the right and younger lawyer to the bench earlier.
This would afford them the opportunity to grow to either the position of Chief Justice of the Federation or the President of the Court of Appeal or even the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court. In fact, there are other northern senior judges after Mahmud and that trend will still continue. I can’t remember the last time, when a southern became the President of High Court. It’s a big problem.
So, what is the way out of this situation?
We need to understand that there is a problem, then, we will begin to deal with the problems squarely by going to the root, otherwise we will miss it. Until people from the southern part of Nigeria come together and realize that they need to vie for and occupy high offices like CJN, either in the judicial system or otherwise, this trend would continue unabated.
The south should begin to deal with that, especially with recourse to federal character. The older ones should allow the younger ones to go in. It’s not all about self.

Until we become selfless, these things won’t come. Law is not about self, it’s all about the people.
What are the processes of applying earlier for these high ranking in judiciary?
To qualify, you would have spent 10 years at the Bar.
So, when there is an opportunity to fill a vacancy in the High Court, if you are available, then you can apply, but the rules say, you would have spent 10 years at the Bar. Until people are encouraged to apply early, the trend will not change.
When such application is made and they saw that the lawyer has done well, then, he could be considered. I know of an NBA chairman, who was very advanced yet he was appointed.
And I asked, of what importance is he to the judiciary system because he wouldn’t make any impact before his retirement? How many years are left for him? He should have allowed the younger lawyer to go in.
But you know this might be difficult because a man that hasn’t got to such position in his career would see it as an opportunity before retirement. Don’t you think he would accept it and tag it a lifetime achievement? That is why I said we must be objective in things we do. We are not objective.
Don’t think about self, think about the people you represent. It’s important. Now, if you take the position, what impacts are you going to make within that short period?
Possibly, you deliver a number of judgments and you are retired. You don’t make any impact but if you have a younger lawyer going to the Bench, he has more time to spend and with time he will acquire experiences that would help him grow on the job.
So, there are experiences that come with different tasks. At the High Court, it has its peculiar challenges. People will be able to be delegated on time to enable them to learn and make impact. Justice Oputa went to the Bench early enough and he delivered a number of cases and made much impact. For the sake of the country, younger people are required there.
We need to be selfless in most cases for the country because judiciary is the last hope of a common man and if you are not selfless, you will go into judgment, thinking about tribe and group. There shouldn’t be any sentiment about this and by so doing; you would do something for the good of the country.
If not, people would want to shield the judgment to suit their section. But experience will tell you that Nigeria comes first before sentiment. With this knowledge, you will not give room for compromise. If anyone gives you an offer to compromise judgment, you have to turn it down.
If you have such opportunity at the old age, you should allow the younger person with potential to do so because issues are decided on the popular law.
What does it portend for the Nigeria’s corporate existence?
No, I don’t think so.
It doesn’t portend any danger for the country. Judiciary is guarded by law. Irrespective of any zone anybody comes from, his duty is to interpret the law. Law is not sectional. It doesn’t portend any danger but we are all human beings.
How do you welcome the reintroduction of N65 ATM service fee by the Central Bank of Nigeria? I believe that Nigerians should challenge CBN’s N65 ATM service fee.
It’s not proper. The action amounts to inconsistency of policy. If CBN saw that the policy wasn’t good and abolished it, why should it be reinstated?
When it was scrapped, Nigerians jubilated but emergence of Emefiele re-introduced it for nothing, with a peg that after the third free withdrawals, the service fee is applied for using another bank’s ATM.
This is policy inconsistency. Now, you and I know that a lot of ATMs don’t work. You go to another, it says no network and you are forced to go to other banks’ ATM.
Why do I have to pay for a course that is not entirely my making? It’s not proper, we might think it is nothing, but add up N65 per a thousand people and you will appreciate what Nigerians are being reaped off.
Worse still, the CBN’s Act imposed an obligation upon the Nigerian litigants, who would want to sue it for certain unpopular policies, to first prove bad faith before they could sue CBN or its board. This clause shields CBN from doing what it likes.
That shouldn’t be, because Section 3b of the Constitution gives an aggrieved Nigerian rights to sue and get justice but when you put an added burden on the man to prove bad faith, on the part of government policy, it becomes difficult. With such clause, you are telling the aggrieved to do his worse.
It’s improper. As long as I’m concerned, that law is unpopular in so far that it abuses the rights of the Nigerian to seek redress. It’s unconstitutional and such CBN Act should be challenged and repealed.
If the masses can’t sue CBN base on this clause, what would be the action of the general public and what would lawyers and activists do to liberate the citizenry?
The only thing I would say is for the public to go to court and seek a scrap of the CBN’s Act that seeks to shield them from being sued for whatever that they do wrong by placing an obligation on the people to prove bad faith

I wish that such Act should be brought to the court and declared unconstitutional and be struck out to give the people access to challenge CBN’s policies in the court. There is no doubt that Nigerians are unhappy for the imposition of that tariff.
It’s a reap-off. Nigerians are complaining.
2015 is around the corner and bombs are being detonated everywhere in the country, what are your fears for Nigeria?
I really don’t know where to start from or where to end. For we know that Nigeria needs a lot to be done that haven’t been done. There shouldn’t be power outage in Nigeria of today. We shouldn’t be popular and losing lives on our bad roads for any reason. Nigeria of today ought to have reliable rail movement in order to decongest the roads.
If we have different means of transportation, we shouldn’t be wasting resources and lives on the roads. With that, everybody decides which means of transportation that suits his business – land, water, rail and air. If these happen, movement will be easier and people will achieve more.
But what happens here is that everybody is forced to follow road because there is no other means of transportation and the roads are jammed. Unfortunately, our leaders don’t feel the heat because they use siren to clear the roads when moving.
Siren should be withdrawn from everybody, including government and politicians so that all of us will suffer the effect of the bad roads so that the policymakers would make right policies. Ojo Maduekwe has the attitude of riding bicycle.
He did it in Abuja, and he was knocked into the gutter by a vehicle. So, you can’t use bicycle and you can’t use bikes in Nigeria. So, what are we talking about? All I heard in the country is that automatic tickets have been given to governors and leaders in PDP to return.
Return to do what? It means that the people are no longer judged on their performance rather people are judged by their billings and willingness to help somebody, somewhere to achieve one political post or the other. It doesn’t make sense at all. They should be judged by their ability to perform as oppose to ability to return one person to the political position.
Bombs are rocking the entire country and there is no serious measures set in motion to arrest these. There is much to be worried about in the country because our leaders have failed us.  

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