Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), stated on Tuesday that judges who are lazy and fall short of expectations will not be allowed to remain on the bench.
The National Judicial Council (NJC) will be furious with jurists who fail to deliver the required number of judgments in a quarter, she stated.
The CJN cautioned that the National Judicial Council (NJC) will not think twice about showing underperforming judges the way off the bench, attributing the large volume of cases to the poor performance of certain judges.
She said this during the National Judicial Council’s (NJC) third annual conference on evaluating judges’ performance in Abuja.
According to her, performance measurements ought to consider not only speed but also the caliber and significance of the judges’ rulings.
“As of the first quarter of 2024, we had a total of 243,253 cases pending in our superior courts of record, exclusive of the Supreme Court,” Kekere-Ekun said. These cases include 199,747 civil suits and 43,506 criminal cases.
Justice Kekere-Ekun said: “Unless we can justly, speedily and effectively execute our roles as judicial officers, the populace will lose confidence in the judiciary as it is mostly believed, rightly or wrongly, that the judicial process is often painstakingly slow and tedious, and delayed justice is denied justice.”
In addition to emphasizing that judges should be in charge of their courtroom, make the most of the case management system, and create an atmosphere where helpful criticism is appreciated and taken seriously, the CJN exhorted judges to embrace the culture of excellence and accountability.
To improve court performance, the CJN advised judges to adopt advances in case management and information technology.
She claimed that a plethora of tools for effective case disposition have been made available by the development of digital case management systems, the Judicial Performance Evaluation Software (JPES), virtual courtrooms, e-filing systems, digital databases, web seminars, online meetings, and sophisticated research engines.
Justice Kekere-Ekun praised President Bola Tinubu for increasing judges’ pay and benefits, calling it a noteworthy accomplishment and emphasizing that the betterment of judicial officials’ well-being is a positive step toward advancing the judiciary’s independence.