The
Presidency seems to have bowed to public pressure to forward the name
of the CJN to the senate for confirmation after a dramatic delay.
Justice Walter Onnoghen
From all indications, it appears that President Muhammadu Buhari
has now resolved to appoint Justice Walter Onnoghen as the substantive
Chief Justice of Nigeria.
Since Justice Onnoghen was sworn in by President Buhari as the
acting Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) on November 12, 2016, there has
been concern over whether Onnoghen would become substantive CJN since
the president was yet to forward his name to the Senate barely a week to
the end of the three months that he can hold the post on acting
capacity. The period expires on February 7, 2017.
However, an impeccable source close to the presidency, who asked
not to be named, told LEADERSHIP that the presidency and the
attorney-general of the federation and minister of justice had a meeting
with Justice Onnoghen at 2am last night.
“They presented to Onnoghen the dossier the security agencies
have on him to go through, showing why they delayed to confirm him. He
would have to guard against some of these things when he takes full
charge of the judiciary,” the source said.
With this development, acting President Yemi Osibanjo will forward a
letter on behalf of President Buhari to the Senate for Justice
Onnoghen’s confirmation any moment from now.
LEADERSHIP Friday recalls that the National Judicial Council (NJC)
headed by the immediate past CJN, Justice Mahmud Mohammed, had on
October 12, 2016, recommended and forwarded Onnoghen’s name to the
president for appointment as the next CJN in line with Section 231 (1)
of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
By the virtue of this provision, the president is to forward NJC’s
recommendation to the Senate for confirmation. This and other conditions
related to the CJN’s appointment, such as security screening, were left
hanging till the day the then CJN, Justice Mohammed, was to retire
after attaining the compulsory retirement age of 70 years on November
10, 2016.
Consequently, President Buhari swore in Justice Onnoghen who was
the most senior justice of the Supreme Court as the acting CJN in line
with Section 231 (4) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.
However, the delay by President Buhari to forward Onnoghen’s name
to the Senate for confirmation and subsequently to appoint him as the
substantive CJN began to generate heat in the polity and drew reactions
from some individuals and groups in the country.
Federal lawmakers from Cross River State under the aegis of Cross
River Lawmakers Caucus had on Tuesday raised concerns that for “exactly
two months and 15 days, the presidency has delayed and withheld to
forward his name to the Senate for confirmation as CJN as required by
Section 231(1) of the 1999 Constitution as amended.”
On January 28, 2017, former president of the Nigeria Bar
Association, Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN, warned the federal government
against the creation of a hazardous uncertainty in the polity by the
president’s refusal to transmit Onnoghen’s name to the Senate for
confirmation as the substantive CJN, saying the Buhari government was
setting a dangerous precedent by causing Onnoghen to linger on the post
of acting CJN since November 10 last year
But faulting Olanipekun, the chairman, Presidential Advisory
Committee Against Corruption, Prof. Itse Sagay (SAN), declared that
President Buhari was not bound to ratify Onnoghen’s name as recommended
by the NJC.
He specifically said that since Buhari was neither a rubber stamp
of the NJC, ‘nor a robot for the conveyance of a recommendation from the
NJC to the Senate’, Onnoghen’s recommendation, or that of any other
name, did not give him automatic entitlement to the CJN chair.
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