Centralised Judiciary Hampering Justice Delivery In Nigeria – El-Rufai

• We are pushing for the creation of state judicial councils.

• High court judge handles about 250 cases.

Nasir el-Rufai, governor of Kaduna state, says having unitary judicial system in a federation is an aberration.

El-Rufai, who spoke when he hosted  Olumide Akpata, national president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), said there was need to decentralised the judiciary in other ensure effective justice delivery.

Ekohotblog reports that El-Rufai disclosed that high court judge handles about 250 cases, noting that such heavy case load of high court judges was impeding smoothless  and seamless adinistration of justice.

“It is an anomaly to have a unitary judiciary in a federation, I am one of the major advocates of the decentralisation of our unitarist judiciary to a federal one,” el-Rufai said.

He said he was a proponent of creation of state judicial councils noting that it would help the state to manage its affairs appropriately. He, however, said the constitution has been an encumbrance in their pursuit.

“We are pushing for the creation of state judicial councils that will handle the appointment of high court judges in states, because that is the only way that we will be able to take our fates in our hands.

“I believe that we have enough lawyers in the public and private sectors in Kaduna state to get 20 judges tomorrow if the state judicial council screens them and makes their recommendations.

“But we are constitutionally constrained as we speak.

“I have been making cases for the national judicial council to double the number of high court judges in Kaduna state, which will reduce the case load to about 100 per judge, which is still too high.

“I am happy that the national assembly has started the process of removing the bottleneck and I urge the Nigerian Bar Association to openly support it.”

The governor said this will give more opportunities for qualified lawyers in the private and public sectors to be part of the judiciary.

The governor also said “bringing in outsiders always brings innovations and new ideas to improve the system”.

“I do not believe that the only path to being a high court judge is to be a magistrate or state counsel,” he said.

“There are many other paths as other countries have shown and have produced excellent judges at all levels.”

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