10/09/2024
TASK BEFORE NEW CJN KUDIRAT-EKUN
On Friday, August 23, 2024, history was made in Nigeria as the second female Chief Justice of Nigeria, Hon. Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, was sworn in as the 23rd CJN by President Bola Tinubu. At 66 years of age, she is said to be the youngest woman and the fifth female Supreme Court Justice in Nigeria.
Other female justices of the Supreme Court are Aloma Mukhtar, Helen Ogunwumiju, Mary Odili, and Clara Ogunbiyi. All things being equal, she will occupy that exalted position for four years. She’s expected to retire at the age of 70. The first female CJN was Hon. Justice Mariam Aloma-Mukthar who occupied that position from 2012 to 2014. I do hope the new CJN will build on the worthy legacy of her predecessors while avoiding their pitfalls.
But for the judiciary, this democracy, left in the hands of the political class, would have collapsed. The judiciary is believed to be the last hope of the common man. But for that institution, election disputes would have been resolved by violence, the kind of which motor park leaders use to gain control.
The CJN at present wields enormous powers which need to be whittled down. Lord Acton in a letter to Bishop Creighton on April 5, 1887, rightly observed that “power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely.
The new CJN should learn from the banana peels that led to the forced removal of Hon. Justice Walter Onnoghen in 2019 and the controversial resignation of Hon Justice Tanko Muhammed ostensibly due to ill-health but really because of allegations of abuse of office in 2022.
Hearty congratulations to my lord temporal. May history be kind to you!