Abuja — The Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, has lamented the increasing number of cases pending in superior courts across the country.
To this end, the CJN, who linked the high number of cases to the poor performance of some judges, warned that the apex body of the judiciary, the National Judicial Council (NJC), would not hesitate to show under-performing judges the way out of the bench.
Kekere-Ekun sounded the warning on Tuesday in Abuja, while declaring open the 3rd Annual National Judicial Council (NJC) Conference on Judges' Performance Evaluation.
"We must be deeply concerned by the increase in the number of pending cases and low disposition rates. As of the 1st quarter of 2024, we had a total of 243,253 cases pending in our superior courts of record, exclusive of the Supreme Court. This total is comprised of 199,747 civil cases and 43,506 criminal cases.
"Therefore, it is imperative for all of us to take a serious note of this alarming situation and refocus our attention towards enhancing our judicial performance," the CJN said.
According to her, justices and judges cannot wish away the growing backlog of cases or expect a different results if they continue to do things the same way.
She subsequently, urged them to justly, speedily and effectively execute their roles as judicial officers, so that the populace will not lose confidence in the judiciary.
While observing that most people believed rightly or wrongly that the judicial process is often painstakingly slow and tedious, the CJN enjoined judges to leverage on information technology options and case management innovations to enhance their judicial performance.
"The introduction of digital case management systems, the Judicial Performance Evaluation Software (JPES), virtual courtrooms, e-filing systems, digital databases, web seminars, online meetings and advanced research engines provide a myriad of tools for efficiency in case disposition," she added.
Meanwhile, the CJN has observed that the increase in the salaries and allowances of judicial officers by President Bola Tinubu is a remarkable achievement as the improvement in the welfare of judicial officers is a step in the right direction to promote the independence of the judiciary, which will in turn impact on the professionalism, quality and pace of justice in the country.
Earlier in his speech, the Chairman of the six-member Performance Evaluation Committee, retired Justice of the Supreme Court, Justices Sidi Bage Muhammad I, lamented the consistently low performance of some judges despite the continuous guidance given by his committee.
This situation, he disclosed, informed the decision of the NJC, at its 106th meeting that henceforth, any judicial officer who is assessed as having persistently poor performance should be identified and recommended by the committee for removal from office.
He reiterated that the purpose of the committee is not to persecute, intimidate, oppress or create fear in the minds of judges in the course of performing their constitutional and statutory judicial duties, but seeks to support them as they expeditiously discharge their adjudicatory responsibilities competently, diligently and in accordance with their oaths of office.
"However, the committee does not and will not tolerate repeated acts of non-performance due to indolence, nonchalance or impunity as may be inferred from some of the returns submitted by our judicial officers and even the submission of false returns by a few. These practices must stop.
"In furtherance of its mandate, the committee continues to show cause which provides heads of courts and individual judges the opportunity to engage with the committee and jointly work towards developing lasting solutions aimed at enhancing performance," he said.
He added that his committee has also established a commendation and query register, developed guidelines on performance evaluation and continue to implement the judges' performance evaluation software, which enables the online submission of quarterly returns.
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Looking at the way forward, he said the committee is working hard to establish a new system for the evaluation of judicial officers which will focus on both qualitative and quantitative indicators.
In a welcome, the Secretary of the NJC, Mr Gambo Saleh, who described the theme of the conference: 'Judgecraft, Performance, and the way Forward', as very apt, urged the judges to share experiences and perspective on the issue and provide necessary impetus to enhance performance assessment techniques.
Saleh thanked the CJN for approving the event and its content, pointing out that it is a mark at entrenching clear performance regime in line with global best practices.
"It is in line with the vision of bequeathing a judiciary that is much more faster on justice delivery," he said.
