A retired Supreme Court justice, Ejembi Eko, on Monday lamented corruption in Nigeria’s judiciary, especially in the handling of its finances. Therefore, he asked the anti-corruption agencies to investigate the financial records of the judiciary.
Mr. Eko spoke during a farewell session held in his honor in Abuja.
“Nothing prevents the Federation Auditor General’s office, ICPC and other investigative agencies from opening the books of the judiciary to expose corruption in the management of its budget resources,” Mr. Eko said.
“That does not compromise the independence of the judiciary. Rather, it promotes accountability,” he said in apparent response to people who may claim that such an investigation compromises the independence of the judiciary.
Budget allocations for the Nigerian judiciary are shrouded in secrecy despite public protests. Nigerians are not only denied access to the judiciary’s budget, but their income and expenses are also kept secret.
This led to the recent call by the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami, for the judiciary to make its budget public.
Malami also said that the federal government could not determine whether or not the judiciary’s allocation was sufficient because its budget is shrouded in secrecy.
PREMIUM TIMES reported how calls for more appropriations to the judiciary are not matched by financial transparency and probity.
The National Council of the Judiciary and the National Assembly do not disclose the breakdowns of their budgets to the public. Journalists and members of the public are also prevented from witnessing legislative proceedings on the judiciary’s budget, a situation recently deplored by Ben Akabueze, Director General of the Budget Office.
farewell speech
In his farewell address on Monday, Eko, who has reached the mandatory retirement age of 70, said chief court clerks surrender “to be directed in any way in vandalizing the court budget.”
“Gentlemen, the heads of the courts of the federation have enormous budgetary resources with which they can improve the well-being of serving judges,” said the retired jurist.
Expressing the lack of financial transparency in the judiciary, Mr. Eko said: “As it currently stands, and as the Budget Director of the Federal Ministry of Finance recently revealed at the memorial conference in honor of the late Abdullahi Ibrahim, SAN, Europarl8 en It is disconcerting that the welfare of judges remains in an abject state despite the increased budget allocation to the Judiciary under this regime. Why?
“Said budget director suggested that the oft-touted panacea for judiciary underfunding would be for ‘the judiciary to let the relevant authorities open their books.’”
Double standards in disciplining judges who make mistakes
Similarly, Mr. Eko criticized the National Judicial Council (NJC), which he accused of applying double standards in disciplining judicial officials who make mistakes.
The NJC is the statutory body mandated to recruit judges and discipline those guilty of misconduct.
Mr. Eko said that while some judges found guilty of misconduct were barred from promotion, others who committed similar offenses had their promotions stalled for a few years.
“With all due respect to the NJC; the punishment did not meet the public’s expectation that these rotten eggs should have been cracked or crushed and/or exterminated, to serve as a deterrent.
“When the punishment for exceptionally bad and outrageous conduct is too lenient, it encourages impunity and/or the repetition by others of errant or egregious misconduct,” Eko said.
Malami praises the retirement of justice and reiterates calls for an open budget
In his eulogy, the AGF, Mr. Malami, said that Mr. Eko distinguished himself by his good judgements.
Malami said there is a need for the judiciary to open its financial books to public scrutiny.
He urged the judiciary to embrace the federal government’s open government initiative “by showing transparency in its budget affairs.”
Eko, a ‘thoroughbred personality’
At the event, Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) Tanko Muhammad commended Mr. Eko for offering 45 years of his life in service to Nigeria.
Muhammad described Eko as “a personality whose name has become a recurring decimal in the annals of the Nigerian judiciary, ostensible for his strong academic disposition and astonishing scholarship.”
“By virtue of the lofty successes he (Mr Eko) has achieved, his name, by necessity, has been etched in gold and he now deservedly occupies an enviable place in the hall of fame of the Nigerian judiciary,” said Mr Muhammad. .