Judges’ appointment carries implications – Chief Registrar

The Federal High Court (FHC) is unarguably one of the over-burdened courts in Nigeria going by the huge volume of cases that flood the court and the limited number of judges that are on the court’s Bench. Mrs. Rosemary Onome Dugbo-Oghoghorie is the Chief Registrar of the court. In this exclusive interview with AMEH EJEKWONYILO at the court’s headquarters in Abuja last week, Dugbo-Oghoghorie speaks on the giant strides being made by the Chief Judge, Hon. Justice Ibrahim Auta to reposition the court as one of the world-class courts in the country with latest automated equipment, while giving fascinating insights on the courts preparedness to handle pre and post-election litigations as regard the 2015 general elections as well as the challenge of recruiting new judges for the court. She equally gave reasons why judges should appoint Research Assistants rather than the National Judicial Council (NJC) among sundry other issues. Excerpts:

Appointment of judges at the Federal High Court
The appointment of judges is the prerogative of the Chief Judge, and he is working on appointing new judges. Judges are not appointed as at when a judge retires; it is an on-going exercise and it has to be planned and budgeted for. So, until the budget is passed and funds are released the National Judicial Council (NJC) would not appoint judges. This is because the appointment of judges carries financial implications, and until all the financial requirements are met, the NJC will not allow the appointment of judges: their salaries, vehicles, housing and courtrooms. All these issues have to be in place before judges are appointed eventually. So, it is not when a judge retires that you now appoint one to replace him or her.

Financial independence for the courts and the imminent strike by JUSUN
We have not seen the fruit of that financial autonomy. We are still waiting for that judgment to materialise. For the threat from the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) to resume its suspended industrial action, I am only reading that in the dailies. It is the papers that are telling me. I believe the top people in charge of the judiciary are not sleeping to watch the judiciary go on strike for the second time. They are doing something about it.

NBA’s opposition to promotion of judges from the Magistracy to the High Court
Mr. Okey Wali’s opposition to the promotion of judges from the Magistracy to the Federal High Court is his personal opinion as the President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA). I have not thought of it to be right or wrong.

Sponsorship of conferences by organizations for judges
I don’t think there is anything wrong with it. They are trying to expose our judges to fill the gap in their knowledge of the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court. There is nothing wrong in Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) trying to organize seminars to enlighten our judges so that they can acquire more knowledge. I don’t share the view that it could induce judges to be biased in terms of justice delivery.

Preparations for 2015 Pre and post-elections litigations
We are quite prepared at any time. This is not the first election that Nigeria is holding; we have always handled previous elections adequately. I don’t see why we cannot handle the 2015 elections in terms of pre and post-election matters.
Forty years of justice delivery at Federal High Court
The Federal High Court has achieved a lot. It started as Federal Revenue Court with just a division in Lagos. Now we have thirty-six divisions, and in most of the divisions we have our own buildings where our courts are housed. I think we have achieved a lot in terms of human and capital developments.
We are trying as regards justice delivery when matters come to our courts; they are speedily disposed off. In terms of automation and manpower training for judges and the entire staff under the able leadership of Hon. Justice Ibrahim Auta, we are there. The welfare of judges and all the staff is paramount in his agenda within the slim resources that are provided. Kudos should be given to Justice Auta.

Court activities shrouded in “secrecy” from the media
My take on it is that the media is the source that projects the image of the court. My candid advice to journalists is: report what you see; don’t report falsehood. By the time you report falsehood, you throw the judiciary into disarray. You are throwing the entire society into disarray. The society would have a wrong impression of what the judiciary is doing. So, the judges are wary because they don’t know which media house is going to report the truth and which will misrepresent them. In overseas, journalists are allowed in the court to record court proceedings. They don’t distort recording or information, but Nigerian media are often guilty of distorting the truth. So, we are wary until you (journalists) improve; until we see the media reporting facts, we cannot align with the media.

Efforts to fully digitalise the courts
In that regard, Federal High Court has automated some courtrooms. For instance, the Chief Judge’s court has stenographic recorders. In fact, his court is now electronically propelled. As proceedings are going on, the stenographer is typing the record of proceedings. Within a twinkle of an eye, the proceedings are ready. Like I said earlier, Federal High Court has courts in thirty-six divisions. For example, if Abuja the headquarters has a full compliment, we are supposed to have up to ten judges. So, for us to be able to extend that automation to all the courts, it means we are going back again to budget. Each year the Federal High Court budgets for the number of courts to be automated. Therefore, we do the automation as the budget provides. Even in Port-Harcourt and Lagos a few of the courts are automated. It is the intention of the Chief Judge that this automation process spreads across all the courts, all subject to the availability of funds and training. You need to train the judges on how these gadgets work.
We have invested so much in training the stenographers; some of them are still on training. When they are done with the training, we deploy them to the courtrooms with the equipment that they are going to use. Last year, we launched our electronic-filing (e-filing) during the fortieth anniversary celebration of the Federal High Court. E-filing is going to be a very gradual process because we have been on paper-filing for the past forty years. So, it’s going to be a gradual process like the countries we went to understudy. For instance, India; they have the e-filing side by side with the paper-filing. So, gradually we will switch from paper-filing to e-filing. I think we are trying.

Research Assistants for judges
We have research assistants for most of the senior judges that help them. The problems we are facing with the Research Assistants is, if NJC employs lawyers and posts them to the Federal High Court, it would not work. Because most of the lawyers that are employed by the NJC want to remain in Lagos or Abuja; what about the other courts in Kano, Kaduna, Delta, Edo and other states across the country? So, my candid advice is: let the judges employ their own research assistants. I know people that were employed as lawyers at Federal High Court and some of them resigned because they did not want to work in certain places. But if a judge in Bauchi state for instance, recruits a lawyer as a research assistant, that research assistant would remain on that job.