CHIEF Rotimi Akeredolu IS the former Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, President (2008-2010). He was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1978 and appointed Ondo State Attorney General in 1997, a position he held until 1999. And in 1998, he was conferred with the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria. Akeredolu was also Chairman of the Legal Aid Council (2005–2006). In this interview with Vanguard Law & Human Rights, he spoke on a better way of running courts, election petition tribunals, the judiciary and the conferment of rank of SAN on lawyers. Excerpts:

By Bartholomew Madukwe

AHEAD of 2015 general election, how would you describe the judgments of election petition tribunals delivered so far?

There have been no doubts some decisions in election petitions that one cannot fathom the reasoning of some judges. And again, you look at it and wish that such pronouncements were never made. But they have been made and it has brought the judiciary into disrepute. I know the task they have now to change or have a u-turn of some of those decisions that have no basis in law. One will not shy from condemning those who are responsible for it. A number of judges are still doing very well. That is why, even in election petitions, you cannot have a blanket condemnation of the judgments.

No judge had been physically attacked until the occurrence of Ekiti incident, what do you think is wrong at this point in time?

The judiciary is still respected. They deserve our respect and we should give them. What happened in Ekiti State is an unfortunate situation and it is because everything in Nigeria has become politicized; except the judiciary stands up to protect its own and asserts its authority. What happened in Ekiti is just an infraction on the independence of judiciary. If it is not corrected, somebody will repeat it.

On the independence of the judiciary, despite a court judgement, there is still no autonomy of the judiciary. What is your reaction?

To me the judiciary is autonomous. Independence of the judiciary is guaranteed by our constitution. The judiciary is independent. It is the judges themselves that delight in tying themselves with rope and carry themselves to the executive.

You have an institution where nobody can just sit down and say he is removing a judge. That gives you a guarantee of tenure. It is only when a body like National Judicial Council (NJC) agrees with an allegation against a judge, then that judge can be removed. Even in the military era, no judge can be removed by its governor. So what we have now is even better.

It is the judges who have failed to assert their independence because of so many reasons. Some are timid while some are corrupt and they allow the executive to pull them by the hooks. I am not opposed to having the allocation for judiciary on the first line charge.

Guaranteeing independence

But that is not to guarantee their independence because at the end of the day, even if all the money comes to them, some will want more because they feel that the executive has more. So they will still go back to the executive because they want some money from them. All their (judiciary) money, even if given to them, it is more of salaries and money to maintain their courts.

The way the judiciary is run, take it or leave it, there is one or two things that the executive must provide. It is the executive that provides accommodation, transport and others for judges. If those are still going to hang on the executive for their provision, then, those who are corrupt, who want more than one car and better houses, will still believe the executive has money and they want to get from it.

One of the major problems we have is that judges are not supposed to run the funds of their courts. The funds for a court are supposed to be with the Chief Registrar of the court. This is because if anything happens the Chief Judge will be called to explain how funds are spent. It does not make sense. When I came into practice, the Registrars or Chief Registrars of the court were very powerful because they were the accounting officers. Their Chief Judge might be their approving officer but they must account for all the funds.

Some judges have been accused of lobbying for inclusion in election petition tribunals, what is your view?

I think it is true. You find out they repeatedly use some judges and it is becoming a recurring decimal, instead of spreading it out. It does not have to be that a particular set of judges have to be the ones that will be attending to election tribunals. It is good to spread it out, so that people will have experience. Why do they lobby?

It is for money, promotion or peculiar interest. Far above the stipend they are given for sitting, whatever it is, it has become a practice that some judges have gone for two or three rounds. People want to lobby so as to be recognized. So I know that they lobby.

How would you describe government’s response to issues of kidnap, looking at the immediate past president of NBA, Okey Wali SAN, who was released last week and the Chibok girls? 

When death knocks on your neighbor’s door, you have to be very careful. Therefore those of us who were ones NBA President have to be very careful. The other time in Warri, two lawyers were killed. So it is a frightening development because lawyers have become endangered species now.

Endangered species

The development that is even more scaring is the approach of the government. The government, like in Chibok girls, has gone to sleep. Nobody is bothered, nothing is being done and we have heard nothing. There has to be a pressure group that must sit on the neck of the government, to force them to do something.

So what do you think is responsible for the rise in the cases of kidnapping?

The issues of kidnapping and insecurity have risen. The government at the central is PDP. Logically, whatever government that is there, it is the government that is the cause. Maybe one of the reasons is corruption; it is stinking.

So, people now feel that armed robbery is not lucrative as kidnapping. When a government is blatantly corrupt and the people are languishing in poverty and nothing to eat, so they will have to try make ends meet. These kidnappers are even graduates.

If we have a government that is not bothered about employment, a government that has done little or nothing to employ people- that government is responsible for it. And at this time, it is PDP that is the government. They are not providing proper leadership for this country, in terms of job creation, security and reducing corruption. No doubt, it has to be put at the door step of PDP as the government at the centre, for being the cause.

Some lawyers have condemned the conferment of the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria, on lawyers, what is your opinion?

My opinion is that being made a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) is just a privilege. SAN is a preferment; it is just a privilege. The people in the Privileges Committee set criteria and determine what they want to do, and that is all. There is nothing anybody can do about that. You are not going to be called to do an exam! Although these days, they would call you and do some interview.

But it is a privilege and I do not see any reason why we would complain. I think the best you can do is to let the body of senior advocates have influence on who represents senior advocates at the privilege committee and you will get there. If they set criteria for this preferment, whatever it is, when they arrive at their decision, it is a privilege and we cannot complain about it.