The Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Olukayode Ariwoola has said there is no rift between serving Justices of the Supreme Court and the immediate past successor, Justice Mohammed Tanko.
This was as Chief Justice of the apex court also denied that he and other justices of the Supreme Court wrote petition against the former CJN.
He explained that the internal memo detailing the issues of welfare and other conditions of service of judges which was sent to the former CJN was “miraculously” leaked to the media.
Ariwoola gave the explanation shortly before he was confirmed by the Senate as substantive Chief Justice of Nigeria on Wednesday.
The new head of Nigeria’s judiciary said he was shocked and embarrassed about the leaked memo which he said was only to prompt the former CJN to action on the justices’ complaints of poor renumeration, lack of official vehicles, accommodation, and other entitlements.
“We did not write any petition. It was an internal memo that was leaked. We had at a meeting raised issues about the working conditions of judges, our colleagues who have no accomodations, no vehicles, our entitlements to attend workshops which were claimed not to be provided for whereas they were in the budget. Our brother, former CJN probably forgot to take care of it. So we sat together to put something on paper and we all signed the memo and we sent it to our brother.”
“How the memo came out in the newspapers is still a miracle.
We were embarrassed ourselves. We wanted the CJN to let us meet with the management of the court to let them know that we had no problem with our number one(Tanko).”
“There was no petition against the former CJN and we remain as brothers. Justices were not protesting. We could not have carried placards”, he said.
Ariwoola however decried years of poor funding which he said was suffocating the judiciary in Nigeria.
He therefore appealed to the National Assembly to always ensure that the budgets of the Judiciary are promptly passed; stressing that justices should never be allowed to go begging.
“Justices must participate in the preparation and defense of our budget. The judiciary must be properly funded and we should not go cap in hand. we should not beg for our entitlement”.
The new CJN who promised to reform the judicial system with the introduction of innovative technology to ease court processes called on the lawmakers to assist him in making it happen by amending the Constitution to ensure that some cases terminate at the Court of Appeal).
Also Read ; Senate confirms Ariwoola as substantive CJN
President Muhammadu Buhari had on June 27th, 2022 appointed Justice Ariwoola as Acting CJN and in accordance with provisions of the Constitution forwarded his name to the Senate for approval and confirmation.
For about one hour, the lawmakers grilled the Presidential nominee and having answered to all the questions thrown at him by the lawmakers, the Senate extended one of its highest privileges to the Chief Justice when it asked him to take a bow and go.
Editor : Ena Agbanoma
