Posted by Inadequacies in the country’s legal system, according to Barrister Kamaldeen Gambari, chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association’s (NBA) Ilorin branch. He blamed this on the prevalence of corruption among the judiciary’s workers.
During a conversation with journalists in Ilorin, the capital of Kwara State, Gambari made this statement. He claimed that certain judicial employees take advantage of both attorneys and plaintiffs, leaving them both at the mercy of the system.
However, Gambari pointed out that there are certain members of the judicial staff who carry out their responsibilities conscientiously without corrupt tendencies and reaffirmed that the NBA is making every effort to thwart them.
“The exploitation is so pervasive that legal professionals and litigants may rarely do anything free without some portion of these staff making some unholy demands,” he said.
“Every time they do this, the Bar tries to stop them, but the desired outcome is not always what we get. When the new interim Chief Judge, Justice Abiodun Ayodele Adebara, officially assumes his position, we will present this corruption pattern to him.
In response to claims that certain judges are partisan in politics, the NBA chairman noted that any judge who knows his duties will be wary of his behavior, keeping in mind the norms of his office, since the ethics of the profession forbid such action.
Such behavior, in his opinion, does the judges a disservice and could bring their positions into shame.
“The ethics of their office prevent that; if any of them are found to be participating in that, it will be unfortunate, it is a huge disservice to the judiciary, and they are doing that at their own risk because that will bring the office they hold into shame,” said Gambari.
“If truly there is corruption in the judiciary, I can vouch that we have no corrupt judge in Kwara State judiciary, regardless of who the litigants are,” the NBA chairman continued. “All of our judges are full of integrity regardless of who the litigants are, they don’t bow to any pressure and they discharge their duties with the utmost and purest of intentions based on the facts presented before them.”
Gambari emphasized once more the need for the government to utilize retiring judges’ experience by giving them new roles rather than letting it deteriorate.
He made this statement about Justice Suleiman Durosinlorun Kawu, the recently retired chief judge of Kwara State, whom he characterized as highly knowledgeable, full of wisdom, mentally sound, and full of fear of God in the exercise of his judicial duties.
In particular, he said, “via the National Judicial Council, NJC, we will continue to work to get them engaged and beneficial for the state, starting from the Kwara State Government up to the Federal Government.”
He stated: “At the Supreme Court, we have fewer judges than we need, there have been no appointments, and people are retiring every day. The versatile ones among these people can be used to fill these vacancies so that their knowledge shouldn’t be wasted.”
The idea of disputes between the two components of the legal system, the Bar and the Bench, was also discredited by the state NBA Chairman. He said: “There should not be any conflict between the Bar and Bench as the two are like Siamese twins, we are linked from the start.”
No one “may be a member of the bench without first being a lawyer,” he said.