Fresh facts emerged last night to explain why members of the Justice Muhammadu Uwais- led Stakeholders Committee for the Reform of the Judiciary failed to agree on the position of the leadership of the Nigerian Bar Association that serving judicial officers should not be members of the National Judicial Council (NJC).
LEADERSHIP WEEKEND can authoritatively report that this development was actually responsible for the refusal of the NBA president, Mr Joseph Daudu (SAN), and his predecessors Mr Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN) and Mr. Olisa Agbakoba (SAN) to sign the report of the 28-member committee.
Justice Uwais had submitted the report of the reform? committee to the chief justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Dahiru Musdapher, Thursday in Abuja, and specifically stated that the leadership of the Bar had refused to sign the report without stating any reason.
Contrary to a report in one of the newspapers that the leadership of the Bar refused to sign the report because of their reservations about the recommendation for the reinstatement of the suspended President of the Court of Appeal (PCA), Justice Isa Salami, a source close to the NBA confided in LEADERSHIP WEEKEND that the report was false.
He added that members of the Uwais committee were unanimous on the reinstatement of? Salami? in the interest of justice, saying that the consensus of the committee? was that the ongoing legal action would be addressed accordingly.
The source said; “ I? can tell you that the position of the Bar on the membership of the NJC is that no serving judicial officer should be a member of the NJC. We are also saying with a high sense of responsibility that no serving chief? justice of Nigeria (CJN) should head the NJC because there is no way you can instil discipline when you have serving members of the Bench sitting in a case some dramatis personae of the NJC.
“May I also remind you that no member of the Bar and the Bench will forget in a hurry how a personality clash between the former CJN, Justice Aloysius Katsina –Alu? and Justice Salami nearly destroyed the judiciary while the NJC could not resolve the dispute amicably.
“This fundamental issue prompted the leadership of the Bar to push for a situation where members of the NJC will comprise retired judicial officers and other stakeholders. This is to insulate the NJC from any interference and politics.
“We are aware that this is a constitutional issue that requires the consequential amendment of the 1999 Constitution, but we believe that the noble objective is possible because the judiciary is the bedrock of any society and we must guard it jealously.
“This explains why the Bar made the recommendation. But when the issue was not reflected in the final report,? our leaders refused to sign the report. That is the best thing to do because the time has come for stakeholders to address the fundamental flaws in the NJC.”
It was also gathered that the NBA boss would speak on the issue on Monday, just as the NJC had fixed Wednesday for an emergency meeting to address Salami’s matter.?