Hakeem Yusuf's Inaugural Lecture: Unaccounted Judiciaries & Law in Post-Authoritarian Societies video transcript

My topic today on judiciaries and the rule of law in post authoritarian societies is one that has occupied my attention and has been a major interest for me that's taken me across the world like professores mentioned but let me start by saying that maybe in another world I would still like to be a judge what you find me saying here and if you read some of my work is what I call a lot of opportunistic Judge bashing so if there are any judges in the audience May Cula I'll still like to be a judge if I had the opportunity to inat another life.

It's a pleasure to be here and I think I would want to preface my lecture today with saying that I've been around a bit in my career but I am so delighted that I am privileged to give my inaugural lecture at the University of Derby. I have felt most valued in my career at this University and I continue to feel so and that is the truth so let's let's start. What am I at today by way of outline I want to First just mention again what the D CA said about my research interest and what they really mean then I'll go into my lecture today and you are not likely to find that most of my slides will have these headings but they formed the sort of thematic arrangement of my talk this evening so I'm going to say that the past has not passed away and then move on to welcoming well welcoming back author arianism what's that about in the context and something I call the rise and Rise of judicial power which is a global phenomenon we find as I would talk to us about it and then if the Judiciary is rising as an arm of government you can expect the politicians to fight back and lastly what really am I at in all all of us and that's the minding the Gap in terms of my research interest as the p uh my pvc has said there are about four areas but I would just mention three there is the comparative constitutionalism which today I just want to P I want to talk about in terms of colonial constitutional legal history and in terms of colonial constitutional leg legal history I have been drawn to that for the past seven years I was actually turned as to whether that should form the focus of my lecture but I'm going to find as you'll see later a clever way to draw it because inevitably what I'm going to talk about goes back to Colonial constitutional legal history as far as the Commonwealth is concerned and I also have an interest in business human rights and in that essentially I look at the power of multinational corporations in developing resource rich countries that I see a mentor in the audience that didn't give me notice they were going to come here shout out to you I'll come back to you um business and human rights I talk about multinational corporations and how they are par is something that is felt at the blunt edge of it in resource Rich developing countries and I also as D came mentioned and you'll have heard a lot about that in some of the awards I have w on transitional justice but essentially in two areas so what is Transitional Justice is the way countries that have experienced troubles whether that is civil war or post authoritarianism recover Justice for the gross violations of human rights someday somehow there will be that transitional justice issue in the Middle East for instance and specifically in Palestine the theme that runs across my research on these three areas of interest is the exercise of Power by state and non-state actors. I'm going so moving on how is that working I promise no arguments yeah you go so let's start my focus today is going to be on Nigeria briefly as an example of what I'm talking about in relation to post Colonial Africa especially so I start with Nigeria's Independence those in the audience who are Niger May recognize that but we may also look at that last but one picture there and there is someone we may recognize there any guess is who that is the so that is Nigeria's prime minister and there is someone here from the royal family and there is someone beside her any guesses who that is there a price to be won for that Her Majesty but that is not the late Queen herself that is Princess Margaret princess is she princess yel and that was the last Governor General of Nigeria beside her thank you and I think when you are on this Podium and have the opportunity of being celebrated like this you also have an opportunity to be well little bad so I will stop there just and recognize my family because I won't be here without them so let's go back my mom is watching this 5,000 kilometers away shout out to you Mom let's go so is my step dad shout out to you there and my dad is late somewhere somewhere somehow he really wanted me to do this and I'm sad that he's not here today but I'm also proud that if he could look back he'll be pleased that I did get what he wanted me to he used to promise I will send you abroad even if that is where you want to go after your studies and growing up in Nigeria that was a big thing then he didn't leave to see me achieved that he died a few years before but I won't be here but for the care and attention at least I graduated University and started working before he died he died young but my mom is still alive and I'm also supported all the way um today and always by my family I want to shout out to my loving wife Karima my two daughters of three are here Aisha Mariam Aisha is a lawyer he's a barister Mariam is a third year student in Social anthropology at the University of Edinburgh and Koda is not here because she has to be on NHS service she studying to be a physician associate shout out to you Koda I hope you're watching and I also have two of my son-in-laws here um I think one is wait oh yes oh they both here good that is Dr ahed Nim yes Amed is an engineer um he has a PhD from Blan and there is engineer juriel U you are filming this it's allowed I'm I have my mentor here and he's here in company too I want to say a big shout out to Professor Nelson en Chong Nelson Nelson is Deputy head of school at the University of Birmingham law school and his wife Dr Miss enu Chong is here from soas University of London thank you for your presence and of course thank you to all my family and friends are here Frank is here he he's retired but not tired he has got the Derby spirit in him and of course my head of school Sue and Deputy head of school Joel and my colleagues from the law school Jenny shout out to you so let's go on from this then yes.

The way to understand what I want to talk about is something that I've also published in my research about and it is that after Independence what has happened in Nigeria and I dare say in many countries in post Colonial Africa whether that is the anglophone or the francophone or the what do they call the Portuguese phone logophone irrespective of the Dutch common law mix system of South Africa what took hold was colonial styled governance in one form or the other and that is why I'm interested in postcolonial constitutionalism in the postcolonial Commonwealth in Nigeria and Beyond what had happened is that even physically when the British um Colonial rulers left the incoming Nigerian leaders and in other parts of Africa moved in even physically to where they used to live so do you have something in Nigeria they call them government reservation areas and the colonial and the Nigerian new leaders moved into the government reservation areas and you need to understand what the government reservation areas were they were exclusive areas created with security with all the amenities with a functional system for the colonial leaders for the colonial rulers away from the ruled and our leaders moved there oh the vice Chancellor is here not to talk about the PVC research and for you taking out your time I know it's a busy time for you as always Professor Katherine Michelle I welcome you on behalf of the University and of course the PBC and provos for research so what took hold was a predatory Paradigm which continued what the colonial system was about it wasn't just that they moved physically the whole system moved and continued and I dare say until now has existed so there is a Persistence of a governance style that is predatory in nature as colonialism was in the post Colony what you have is for instance even in the Judiciary or the judicial and legal system a subjugation of the indigenous systems which were called native systems naturally the colonialist brought their institutions and their ideas but those who succeeded them found that better to serve their purposes this is important because the law and Justice framework that the colonial system entrenched was based on one inous sounding principle and that is peace order and good government now what is better than that who does not want peace I do who does not like order we all well you're not criminally minded and who does not like good government we all do but peace order and good government powers in post Colonial constitutionalism and in post Colonial constitutions do do not mean any of that it's it's it's a phrase that means the colonial authorities can do whatever they want whatever they determine is peaceful is peaceful order is order and whatever they determine is good government is good government but that continues to be a feature of the Constitutions of Australia Canada India Nigeria if of the basis of apath laws in South Africa then and also as I will discuss briefly the basis of military authoritarianism that is why it is important that I mention it because when the military authorities in anglophone Africa in the 60s 70s 80s '90s and in francophone Africa I don't know about them whether that's what they use but in anglophone Africa when they took over even in Pakistan their powers are based on peace order and good government constitutional Arrangements amazing and so what we have in these countries are continuities in policing security arrangements and crucially for us the judicial institution all of this follows the colonial system there were continuities of colonial Arrangements in the legal and Justice framework and this continuity is not all bad that's not my claim but it is important that I mention because it's going to come back to bite those were not the only continuities but there were other continuities in the political economy in which for instance until most recently when there have been challenges shell as a British and also Dutch company dominated Nigeria's oil industry and in that domination right from the col IAL period there was the continuities of gross violations of human rights of the host communities where the oil is being extracted and in the last one decade and a half there have been litigation that have been brought right to the doorsteps of their headquarters here in England and in Amsterdam right from my book on Colonial and postcolonial constitutionalism in the common wealth which d c mentioned and let me boast a here or Glo whatever this book W me the award that Professor camel mentioned from the US good right Society for constitutional legal history in Canada and you'll be surprised it add addressed for the first time this issue of peace order and good government across Australia the United States yes the United States was part of the Commonwealth and that's why you find States like Kentucky being until now the Commonwealth of Kentucky even though the United States has exited the Commonwealth after the Civil War and notionally it never was a part of the Commonwealth but it was the First Commonwealth in terms as well so I mentioned the United States there but it focused on India Nigeria Australia South Africa where else about six countries and of course the United Kingdom peace order and good government Powers actually formed the basis of emergency legislation guess where in Northern Ireland during the troubles so even here in these aisles PE other and good government f but but not surprisingly it actually emanated with that positive meaning from these Isles historically but when it transmuted into the colonial um Commonwealth it changed in its meaning that book won me the uh John seal prize in constitutional legal history Comm conal legal history with only one chapter on Canada just one chapter on Canada because it developed a lot in Canada and I am pleased to mention that of the five recipients that had been awarded the Bal prize at that time I was and until now 2015 today I remain the only non-canadian that has won that price and at the time I won it three of the recipients were professor emeritus in Canada's institutions and I was a senior lecturer when I wrote that book so I'm pleased that um that book has continued to inform a part of my work and I've written about this issue of the Persistence of colonial conal ISM even in British overseas territories whether it's Gibralter we are talking about as one of those we are talking there is a Persistence of the model of constitutionalism of colonialism even till this day in the 14 overseas territories of the United Kingdom surprising because there's a lot of quiet quietness and quietude on it so it's not surprising at all that this is still the case in Nigeria and that is where there is a coming together of my research interest in colonial constitutionalism and transitional Justice in these two piece of research I argue that the Persistence of colonial constitutionalism continues to Define and shape institutions including the judicial institutions in the post colony and that's the case with Niger neria and what do I mean here now when Nigeria moved to um Independence there wasn't an accounting and it's not Nigeria alone there wasn't an accounting for the past for the violations that had taken place for the laws that were exploitative that continued to be the case even post um Independence and also for the role of the inherited Judiciary in upholding colonial law so it was so convenient to just move on new boys in the block the former Chief Justice was from the UK and then a Nigerian chief justice took over but nothing changed not the gowns not the laws not the role of the Judiciary being questioned and that really is important for the last point I'll be making but before then even one of the very telling impact of this lack of accountability for the past impos independent commonwealth countries in the post colony is that even Military Officers who had been trained to uphold colonialism but by inand here in the United Kingdom who came into Power then within six years of Nigerian Independence took over military uh government and instituted 29 years with a break of four years in between 29 years of military authoritarian rule in Nigeria on the basis of peace order and good government which remains in Nigeria's Constitution by the way that give the emergency powers and I have here a collage of all of them those that succeeded in the Cs dets that they instituted that the very first one who lost his life when the second one there so the first on the left depending on where you are but the first black and white picture up there is the first one that's the next one he still alive and that's the next one he is not alive he was killed that's the next one that's the second in command to him who took over who you will soon see again when Nigeria moved to civil Democratic governance and that's the next one down there who took over from the civilian government that the fourth one handed over to and this one you will see again because he also became Nigeria's president 2015 to 2023 that one on um um up there the last one up there was president again after military role from 2 1999 to 2007 and that's the next one that took over from his friend they are actually friends um the one salute him and that's the one that took over from him you may have heard of the name of that one his name is if you know about Nigeria's con um issues with governmental corruption by military role you may have heard the name General aater that's AA in the dark specs and the last one hopefully is they will last in that collage now what did what is of Interest two things actually quite a number of things first these offices all joined Nigeria's Army from the colonial era it's not so long ago nig's been independent 60 years most of their training was here in the United Kingdom and the basis of their taking over power was that they say they were mesias who were going to ensure peace order and good government but which meant whatever they say so what am I trying to say is that Independence for Nigeria was a continuation of a lack of accountability which hit us right in the face with authoritarianism coming back because colonial rule was authoritarian that's the most benign thing you could say about the way colonial rule was imposed in Nigeria okay you you forget and in Africa if you forget or probably even in the United States in what became the United States or Canada or South Africa or Pakistan or India which Pakistan was a um a part of but the issue is authoritarianism was easy to find its way back because of the legacy of colonial rule two things these officers were trained by the colonial military rulers and secondly more functionally they inherited the system of lack of accountability so they ruled Nigeria for the better part of 29 years 1966 to 1999 with a break Between 1979 and 1984 now we I'm going the Judiciary was always intact from the colonial period seamlessly into the Independence Independence period where we had elected Democratic rle for six years and then military intervention the could the institution remained intact unlike the other two so the legislative and executive functions were taken over by the military but the colonial uh but the Judiciary made intact in fact in theory the powers of judicial review which are very important features or it want not be very important features rather of common law which we inherited um from the United Kingdom from Britain um features in Nigeria's constitutions all true how be it curtailed by the military rulers at will but it it's it's notionally there but what then happened was that the judges themselves don't went on to even create more restrictive rules of capacity to sue the military government and until recently even the democratic government too in the country and even more relevantly to my discussion tonight is the fact that the the Judiciary legitimized authoritarianism and I'm talking about not even the colonial one I'm talking about the military role after a little resistance initially when the courts were faced with deciding what to do with military Ro they decided declared within six months month of the military coming into Power there was um a judicial review question on the legality of their actions and the Supreme Court initially said nope those guys have acting in violation of the Constitution and that was something of an Applause but the military within 24 hours actually passed power under peace order and good government to pass a legislation to say no we are legitimate what has happened is a revolution in law if there are lawyers in the room and there are some and online they said it was a kelsenian revolution that what had happened had erased whatever was there before the military took over and then when you ask yourself what the Revolution was about it was actually killing the former elected rulers what is the revolution in killing elected rulers the court said that was you know initially the court resisted but when this legislation got back to the court it it it was named Supremacy decree suy Powers decree the court said well we agree it's a kenian revolution and now they are legitimate senior lawyers in the room they are laughing that's that's that was the basis and successive military CPS which just involve either killing or detaining the mil rulers successfully then meant the cenan Revolution was then being you know renewed over and over and that's my real grow with the Judiciary when they had finished with us in Nigeria for 29 years what they left behind the legacy of A Dysfunctional system it divided Society it lost sided Federation why did they leave a l-sided federation the military couldn't do otherwise the military act based on the last order they have a system where the general doesn't talk to the Corporal or to the sergeant the general talks to the lieutenant general who talks to the major general who talks to the Brigadier General who gives the order to the coral who gives you are surprised why I know this I was going to join the military when I finished high school because I was actually annoyed with the military and I thought the solution was to kill them all of and how so naive I mean it I got saved from doing that just like that the military have caught up with me I think finally anyway so the the way they act the the the system is organized is a very disciplined system and what then happened was that we were a federation with regions but the military broke that down into States and then insisted that the federal government's Powers superseded whatever the regions wanted or not but the regions have been broken into small states actually 36 of them now so they left a l-sided federation where we had at independ in for6 years very strong Regional government but the military sucked in those powers and appropriated them for the federal authorities because the general was the top man there and that's how his Governors were like prefects so they were Junior officers and they had to take instructions from him and the federal government's laws superseded the the the state laws so they left a l-sided federation they left a debilitated social and political institutions the military are not meant they are not trained to build except Bridges especially during war they are meant to destroy they are they they are trained to destroy and they destroy the institutions but of relevance here also is that part of the institutions their their impact has been most profound on is the Judiciary there was a development of judicial ineptitude and Corruption and In fairness the Judiciary during the milit the civilian and during the colonial era was a an efficient one because there were only few Elite who dealt with those cuts but with education and you know people becoming more interested in Western idea years there were there was a growth phenomenal growth in people had um um taking their mates to what they call the conventional courts so that was judicial ineptitude where people started a case and the witnesses die off before the case gets to the appelate level and sometimes a land matter would be continued by a grandchild because those who started it are died and I kid you not and there was also corruption because the military made sure that there wasn't a functional system around Elite power struggles social disempowerment and more crucially a governance Gap that governance Gap is what you see in the development of a body like Boko Haram uh as it were and the instability that has also followed in the wake of military rule in Nigeria but so much for that in 1999 the country moved back to democratic governance and guess who was then the new president a former military ruler there is he's the one that was there up on the last on the on the Top Hand of the collage on the right he he came back and he came back in Nigeria as what we call AB that is Nigerian gown which I think one of my colleagues is I hope you are not him you look a bit like him right okay so I I know how to you know make for the door but that is Dr John omali of our school of social sciences he's not General now Chief so that is his one of his Juniors handing over to him but who had become a general himself so that tells you the power the military held in Nigeria they determined when they were tired who was still going to succeed them and what that meant again which is where I started from where I started from is that there was political transition and now with the growth of transitional Justice as a subset of Human Rights and humanitarian law across the world and a demand that societies have suffered gross violations uh of human rights do deal with the past Nigeria had to do something about the past but what happened was that there were supposed said legal reforms unquote and some attempt at trials and lustration of some key actors in the military period but what that delivered was false constitutions and because there were iterations of the attempts at civil rule but what do I mean by false Constitution was is the fact that the people were not consulted so you find in most constitutions American style we the people we don't have a rating constitution in the UK so it's not exactly like that with us but in most of the Commonwealth you find the Constitutions declaring the American sty we the people but there were no people there are the people were selected lawyers uh by the military authorities who wrote up a constitution overnight and handed over and they left also a weak Criminal Justice System um overcrowded prisons and all of that corrupt Place social legitimacy deficit of the Judiciary is more important to us because the cases that went to the courts had now become so much delayed there was so much corruption in the Judiciary but more relevantly for talk tonight there wasn't an accounting for the judicial role I we'll take a break from Nigeria now why in the period from about 1985 on until now a phenomenon had developed that has continued on to now a worldwide phenomenon and that is the rise and Rise of what of judicial power in governance here is who knows what this picture is lawyers if you look closely you see this the am I alone International court of justice that is the genocide case picture International court of justice the genocide case so that should bring home to you the importance of judicial power The Whole World's attention on Palestine shifted to the international court of justice that is the essence this is a court that doesn't have the power to even enforce his decisions but a declaration by that court of genocide or no genocide of legality or illegality of the Armed sales to Israel by Germany is not something that will be irrelevant from a political point of view that is the latest iteration in the international Fen but the rise of judicial power is a worldwide phenomenon like I said because the role of the Judiciary in governance has become geometrical in its volume and its impact why because you're an age of democracy if you cannot get what you want from the political actors where do you go or even when the political actors do not agree they head for court whether as an institution or an individual against an institution or even in institutions so the visual involvement in policy or even political decision making has become so important in the last three decades and to drive this home these are royal courts of Justice here in England the do you remember this case santz and M there a Secretary of State for ex exiting the European Union my colleague from the University of Birmingham will recall that when this decision was given we conveyed within two hours of that decision a seminar to give a position paper on it in the law school that's how important it is this the brexit case you know it as the brexit case and you will all recall how people on both sides were focusing on the courts when this case came up that is how we get an idea of what the judicial power does in these times the question was whether the crown acting through the ministers has the prerogative powers to give notice under article 50 of the European Union treaty to trigger the process of withdrawal from the European Union um if all of that legal is not clear all it was saying was that the ministers the Prime Minister didn't want to consult Parliament to ask for a legislation or discussion on exiting the European Union following the um uh what was it we had um the referendum on exiting the European Union and and Parliament said you need a law to do that because it was a law that allowed us to join the union and the ministers and the Prime Minister were arguing that no the executive has power without further reference to Parliament under the Queen's prerogative powers that is powers that are not controlled by legislation what did the court say this quotation is very instructive for probably what he did not say but let's let's look at it it is agreed on all sides in his judgment concept that this is a justiciable question which meant that there was a debate as to whether this political question is one that should be adjudicated by a court which it is for the court to decide it so justiciable question means the courts it's a legal question not a political issue it deserves emphasis at the outset that the court in these proceedings is only dealing with a pure question of law that's how courts say when the political issue is obvious but they want to exercise jurisdiction over it anyway nothing we say has any bearing on the question of the merits or Dem merits of a withdrawal by the United Kingdom from the European Union but it does that's why the court is forced to say it doesn't and then the court Contin to say um nor does it have any bearing on government policy hey this is government policy they God say it isn't because government policy is not law right because all the court is meant to do is to adjudicate on legal issues on law the policy to be applied by the executive government and the merits all the merits of withal are matters of political judgment to be resolved through the political process it's because they didn't resolve it that it came to court and the court ended saying you do need to go to Parliament and get a law made which was what happened but the court deserved what it decided by saying this just so to diffuse the tension that have been generated around the country on people saying look at these judges there were a lot of things in the sun you know and they were saying these are the faces of the enemies of the people that is the essence of judicial power that are developed so let's go back to the Nigerian scenario this rise and Rise of judicial power in the context of Nigerian setting that i' been talking about as you will suspect has happened with an unaccounted Judiciary when Nigeria moved to democratic rle in 1999 there was some attempt to Grapple with some violations of human rights by governmental institutions indeed there was an attempt to bring some of the military rulers two of whom had since ruled Nigeria almost in succession in that picture before a truth telling commission and we all know what a truth telling commission is or Truth and Reconciliation Commission is Allah South Africa but we had ours in Nigeria was called the okota panel led by a retired respected justice of Nigeria Supreme Court chukua and mo I have been privileged to also serve on the truth commission how be it on the state level that was a federal one in one of the states in Nigeria now what then happened was that we had a judiciary that was excluded from the from any account and the Gary again from the movement from colonialism to De to Independence to military rule back to civil rule without any accounting despite its legalize legitimization of authoritarianism despite the corruption despite the ineptitude and so on that had happened as an arm of government at the end of the day when we talk about government we use the term government in this country to talk about essentially the executive but in basic politics and political science we know government refers to the executive the the legislature and the Judiciary so as an arm of government it was excluded and what then happened was that a system developed in the Judiciary where key issues were being brought to it on Con constitutional matters and we had conflicting decisions at the highest level so for instance there was a legislation that was passed at the federal uh legislature which meant that an a body was established on two bodies actually anti-corruption bodies to tackle the widespread corruption or systemic corruption in the system uh of governance in the country and there was an objection by the states that we are a federation the government at the federal level does not have the power to do that when that went to the Supreme Court which is the only one with the jurisdiction on state and federal disputes in the country the Supreme Court upheld that legislation creating those two anti-corruption bodies and that was a contest between federalism and Corruption and the only basis was um directive principles of State policy which are not actually justiciable parts of the Constitution which means you cannot ordinarily go to court based on those as they say directive principles those are objectives of the state you there's not a specificity of what they mean so the government the Supreme Court upell it on that basis and said corruption have become a cancer in the system in Nigeria and needed to be uprooted excellent right few two years later 3 years later the federal government comes again under a former military ruler mind you who is still in his military mesiah um um Gap and he legislates for a valid thing mind you the state governments were fonded of appropriating the reeven knew that were meant for the local government which is the third arm of government and because of this a law was made to monitor the revenue going to the local government by the from the federal uh from the national purse and the state government took umage at this again this time the court was divided majority of the same panel virtual half more than half of the same seven man panel that sat on the previous one sat on this case and this time they said federalism trumped the anti-corruption legislation so which Constitutional value do we uphold federalism or corruption that is because the system of the Judiciary and the judicial function itself had not been subjected to any accounting and I did speak about it in my research but more fundamentally well in terms of the result that is is that Democratic power in Nigeria for the past since 1999 24 years has been by the grace of the courts so you get to be either a senator a a legislator or um an a governor or the president only through the court the courts have declared for instance that Nigerian politicians are the most litigious in the world and they are everybody that loses an election goes to court in multiple from multiple parties every time all the way to the appellate jurisdiction but these judges then have to determine the legality of votes or otherwise the conduct of Elections or the impropriety of it the propriety of selection of candidates by parties or the impropriety of it and it has been so dramatic and very unpredictable and so what that had thought the politicians is to fight back how do they fight back this is part of what I addressed in that paper but how do they fight back the way they have fought back with this judicialization of politics yes that's the other thing because of the absence or of an Institutional memory in the political um institutions the executive and leg legislature there there has been a lot of wranglings around policy and every time that goes to court whether it's the state or the federal or a state and another state or an institution and another institution of government matters of economy matters of security all sort of matters that should ordinarily be resolved in Parliament go before the courts so there's a judicialization of politics which simply means what the name suggests instead of political issues being handled in the parliament they are being thrown to the courts for determination that has been problematic because it then meant that a lot of power has been given to court that are themselves unaccounted themselves found to be corrupt and they are had legitimized authoritarianism how has the politicians or how have the politicians fought back they have taken an interest a very deep interest in the Judiciary they have taken an interest that's led to more attempts some of them successful some of them just alleged of corrupting the judicial officers whose pay for instance had been frozen since 2000 or 2001 thereabouts only this Administration in January passed legislation to increase the pay of Judges so you can imagine the opportunity there so they have taken an interest in corrupting judges on all sorts of matters but even more sinister is that they have now taken an interest in appointing to the Judiciary politicians politicians to the Judiciary their wives State Governors swear in their wives as high court judges court of appeal judges in fact the president of Nigeria's court of appeal the penultimate last president oh by the way we are up on something that UK needs to copy and is that we have had more female judges in in Nigeria than UK we've had three two supreme court justices that are women we've had three or four including the incumbent and the previous one and the previous one uh court of appeal presidents that are women the current one is a pressor is but that why I remember that is that the pred the pressor to the current one a husband is a leading politician and he said that the political occasion that I had been able to influence my wife on political decisions and the wife had to do a mea it was so embarrassing and of course this meant that he had been able to determine who was a governor who was a Senator when he was there it was that is how so the the the the current chief justice has appointed his son president and nephew as court and of as high court and court of appeal justices because the Judiciary has become a point of interest and the politicians are rubbing the backs of the judges and the judges are rubbing the back of the politicians because there wasn't any accountability but why was there no accountability president why was there no accountability is the mind the gap there are a number of blocks against it one of these goes back to the common law system of arranging what judicial accountability means and that's what I've addressed for the past 15 years in my work namely this that unlike the executive and the legislature um the Judiciary is self-regulating you do not um if you are if you are not pleased with a Judicial determination in a court you appeal it you do not question the bonafides of the judge that is a common that's a common law principle that we inherited in Nigeria from the United Kingdom where it had then meant in our own case that that is totally abused where from where we inherited it more than3 years on now there has not been and I stand to be corrected a recorded incident of corruption in in the UK's Judiciary certainly not in the court of record so what has been imported to us because of the cultural context because of the political context because of the social context has been one that is not fit for purpose but it is standard and this has been the practice across the Commonwealth that no matter the role the Judiciary has played you have to believe that the judges were disinterested that the judges were not corrupt that the jurisprudence could be wrong but even where it is wrong it is only the Judiciary that looks at that and that was the Assumption and has been the Canon and I've said that Canon has to be addressed that Canon has to be changed especially in postauthoritarian situations where the Judiciary has gone against his own oath of office of Fidel to law rather than to power so there's a gap there that my work has actually influenced in changing with the foremost in organization we that has obser um um Observer status with the UN the international Commission of jurists that fights for Independence of the Judiciary my work has been able to influence that organization to now regard accountability for the role of judicial institutions in postauthoritarian societies as something that strengthens judicial Independence rather than one that contradicts judicial Independence and in the Nigerian case and in other cases like it what I have recommended is a public hearing through a truth commission process that addresses other violations of human rights to include the Judiciary thank you

Hakeem Yusuf's Inaugural Lecture: Unaccounted Judiciaries & Law in Post-Authoritarian Societies video

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