Nigeria needs honest, firm judicial system to develop as desired, says Justice Haroon
With the current situation in Nigeria judicial sector where some judges and lawyers are being tagged as being corrupt, there is the need to tackle the challenge head-on to protect the integrity of the temple of justice as it is paramount to fish out bad eggs among judges in the country.
This was the candid submission of the immediate past Grand Khadi of Kwara State Shari’ah Court of Appeal, Ilorin, Justice Idris Abdullahi Haroon in an interview with BusinessDay in Ilorin, Kwara State Capital on Tuesday, adding that “the nation needs a well-oriented, honest and firm judiciary to bring sanity to the system.”
According to him, If the judiciary of a nation is well rooted, solid, just, focused, and insulated from corruption, surely the country would be good and would bee criticised positively.
He added “The judiciary that has faith on itself, believes in integrity, honours its country and its profession; a judiciary that has faith and fear of God in its judgement, are the kinds of judicial officers,
Nigeria needs, but a fragile judiciary can not bring sanity to the Country.
When he was asked to give professional assessment on the Nigerian Judiciary, the retired judge said, “Though, Nigerian Judiciary with all due respect, our people in the profession that are of high repute have contributed a lot to the development of our dear Country. But I am not disputing that some of us are raw and corrupt. Prophet (SAW) put it “there are three categories of judges, only one of them will go to paradise and the rest will go to hell. So, it is presumed that there will be bad judges.
“A judge who has the knowledge , capability, just and firm, who can adjudicate within the norms that is expected of a good judge, who can not wave off truth as a result of bribery and corruption will go to
paradise.
“A judge who does not have value of being a judge, who lacks integrity of the job, lacks dexterity, the knowledge, but based on influence he has, he becomes a judge thus, you can not expect any positive or effective service from such judge.
“Also, there are some judges who know what it entails and professionally qualified but at the same time because of being corrupt, they are vulnerable to bribery and unauthorised gifts, are the ones for hell. So, based on what is happening in this country today, we need a judiciary that can stand on its feet.”
Justice Haroon further observed that Nigerian Judiciary in some few years back, has been exposed to a lot of criticisms due to the performance of bad ones in the system as they were deviating from the right path. He said, “It is high time we re-orientated ourselves in the profession, we need to be more decent, upright and honest in our deliveries.
“In this country we have people of integrity that practicalized judiciary as expected of a qualified and professional judge. People like my Lord –Justice Alfa Belgore, my Lord, Justice Uwais, my lord- Justice Babalakin, my Lord, Justice Mustapha Akanbi and my Lord, Justice AbdulKadir Orire and others.
RAZAQ AYINLA & SIKIRAT SHEHU