Judges That Cannot Deliver 3 to 4 Judgments in a Year, Will Be Shown Their Way Out: (CJN), Justice Mariam Aloma-Mukhtar

The cleansing of our National judiciary by Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Mariam Aloma-Mukhtar continues as she on Friday continued the implementation of her anti-corruption crusade in the judiciary. Any judge that did not deliver minimum of four judgments in a year would be automatically booted out, she said.

Speaking last Friday while receiving Performace Evaluation report on judges, she confirmed Nigerian Tribune’s exclusive report on the ban she placed on indiscriminate travels by judges, noting that apart from the outcome of petitions filed against them, the National Judicial Council would henceforth use its performance evaluation reports to weed out incompetent and indolent judges.

The “Nigeria’s Judicial Performance Evaluation 2008 - 2011” was compiled in seven volumes by the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (NIALS).

While receiving the report in her office, Aloma-Mukhtar said that it was incredulous to observe that some judges could not even deliver up to two judgments in a quarter.

According to her, “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 added that the extent of the rot was not known to her until she directed all judges to seek for permission through their heads of court before travelling 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 travelling 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,” she disclosed.

The CJN went further to state that the judges were expected to commence proceeding by 9.00 a.m., but there were instances when many of them would not resume work until 11 am or 12 noon while the litigants, their witnesses and lawyers keep waiting in the courts.

“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.

“The NIALS’ performance evaluation could not have come at a better time because it will go a long way to compliment the ones carried out by NJC performance evaluation committee,” she added

While presenting the seven volumes of the performance report, the project director who doubles as the head of NIALS, Professor Epiphany Azinge said the work would go a long way to compliment the CJN’s present drive to cleanse the judiciary.

However, he urged the CJN to put necessary machinery in place to standardise process of performance evaluation nationwide.

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