I received many responses to my column of three weeks ago which had questioned our penchant to compromise on what should be the intrinsic value of our institutions and how many of our appointments do not add value; rather, they reduce value. Although the conferment of SAN was made to illustrate the point, many of the comments were on it. The one published today is long but represents in my view, the comments of many respondents.
Dear Muyiwa Adetiba,
I have just finished reading your article on the above subject and decided to respond immediately. You were on point. My principal in Chambers made silk at age 59 after eight attempts. He was eminently qualified in all the eight attempts, but could not get”silk” because he had no pedigree in the profession. He watched with frustration as his juniors were made silk. The year he got it something drastic happened.
The panel that interviewed him consisted of a Judge, a Chief Judge and a SAN. One of them minced no words in telling him that he was their senior. They simply asked him to take a bow and go. Even then, some ground watering had taken place earlier on.
In the United Kingdom where this piece of pomp was borrowed, you do not APPLY to be SILK or Judge. You are invited after recommendations have been made by Judges of High Courts (not the Appellate Courts). The reason is that core advocacy takes place in the High Courts. Quite unlike the Appellate Courts where matters are done on written briefs.
But here in Nigeria you apply to be made silk. You are also to get endorsements from Supreme Court Justices. This system encourages all the negatives of bribery, nepotism, and corruption. Why should a competent practitioner have to know the Judges? Why can’t it be done in such away that Judges make minimum recommendations and then votes are taken on the shortlisted persons among the judges?
The process should be in such a way that the lawyers will never know they are being screened. Why should a practitioner be compelled to be so intimate with a Judge as to approach them for the so-called endorsements? You will shudder at the price tags of these endorsements.
As a practitioner, I am simply persuaded to think that the whole SAN issue has lost its appeal. You need to hear some SAN’s speak; or see how they conduct themselves in and out of the courtroom, and you will lose the appetite to be a SAN.
Ever wondered why we have very poor brains on the Bench? It is because it has become an appointment for the sons/daughters of judges and those who can pay millions in bribes, or those who belong to certain cults. Yet, we want an independent and in corrupt Judiciary.
If you ask around, you will confirm that to qualify as a Justice of Her Majesty’s Court in England, you must be a QC or KC (i.e. equivalent of SAN). But here, you see a hair dresser being pulled out from her saloon and made a Magistrate. At the slightest show of legal argument from practitioners, they become pissed off.
Dr. Oladapo Olanipekun cannot be denied his right to SILK if he is qualified. It should not be a disadvantage that he is the son of a SAN. But, how he has managed all the process within a short time, and then beat other qualified persons, is a marvel. It even casts an embarrassing slur on the silk he wears. It matters not how brilliant he is.
That he is below 40 years is a factor that OUGHT TO DISQUALIFY HIM if ever some kind of sanity and reasonableness would be given to the profession. If they ever claim he achieved all that is required on his own, they would be the greatest of liars.
Beyond the allure of the silk gown, the bell-bottom wig and other regalia of the SAN, the truth is that there is NOTHING to it.’Even as a 15-year-old lawyer, I had given some SANs a run for their money in court room practice. And the joy of practice is the trust reposed in me by my clients. How I discharge my duties and the results I get at the end of it all is the real satisfaction’. The process of getting silk has become so politicized that the rank is now emptied of its real content.
One of these days, you may also find it very necessary to write on the need for transparency in the appointment of judges. I mean all of us came out from a process where you must pass exams before you make it into your chosen profession. Be it law, medicine, journalism, banking etc.
Why then will it be that in getting a status of distinction in that chosen profession, other silly elements like who you know, money, bribery, and ass-licking will become characters you are forced to possess before you make it. If we are told that lawyers are to be made judges, why can there not be proper exams and results published. If you fail, you know why you fail. The process may not be 100 per cent.
But 60 per cent will be a good call, with room for improvement. Take a sample of the persons made judges in Nigeria; many of them do not have successful chambers. You therefore see a situation where persons who are not distinguished in courtroom practice get to the bench to preside and monitor advocacy among those at the Bar.
Recently, Ghana sacked several judges and magistrates in a massive shake-up of that country’s judiciary. And I wondered how a lawyer of some practice and competence could reduce himself to the level some of them were accused of when made a judge. It should be borne in mind (and this is one fact that has deliberately and conveniently eluded our so-called senior judges) that no lawyer goes into a university to read Judgeship because there isn’t a course like that.
You read law. But that you will be a judge will depend on how much of the law facilities (practice, advocacy, brilliance, ability to research, integrity,) you have acquired. These are elements you acquire when you are a constant practitioner. I will recommend some judgments to you, and after reading them, you wonder whether lawyers really wrote them or ice cream sellers.
Anyway, please continue your good works at Vanguard. You, Ochereome, Rotimi Fasan, good old brilliant Dele Sobowale make me proud. You guys can hold your own anywhere in the world. The use of language, thought arrangement, presentation and analysis of issues are all heads under which I can always give you guys an A.
Thanks a lot sir.
Alex I Nonso.
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