Senior Advocate Of Nigeria (SAN) and Lawyer, Robert Clarke, has said that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s swearing in of Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun as the acting Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) is not in infringement of the constitution as it is in President Tinubu’s duties to appoint a new CJN.
Clarke said this in an interview with ARISE NEWS on Saturday, where he also praised Kekere-Ekun’s character, saying that he has, in his 50 years in the judiciary, has not seen any character like hers, and that she will bring reforms to the Supreme Court.
Addressing the controversies surrounding Kekere-Ekun’s swearing in as acting CJN by the President without being screened by the Senate, Clarke said, “What you are suggesting now is that what people are saying- that they should have asked her to wait until the Supreme Court confirms before she was being administered under oath to take over the post. If that did not happen, she will still be the acting as the most senior judge on the bench. She will still be acting as the acting Chief Justice of the Federation. All these are semantics as far as I’m concerned.
“There is no impediment of any constitutional provisions that says a CJ cannot be sworn in by the president. After all, the president is the appointing- under the constitution, the president is the appointing officer. The Senate is only to confirm or reject, and if they reject, it will still take another term, she will be brought back. So, I don’t see any fundamental infringement of the constitution.”
He further explained, “The constitution did not say the period of time the Senate President will confirm what had been done by the President. So, if the President appoints, who has the right under the law to do so, the confirmation can come two months, three months [later]. So, there’s nothing wrong in that, it has nothing to do with the appointment. If the Senate is not ready to confirm, then it will give reasons, and those reasons will be looked into. But its duty is only to confirm. So, that’s why I said it’s semantics, it doesn’t touch any legality or illegality.”
Clarke then went on to extol Kekere-Ekun’s character as he said, “Justice Kekere-Ekun is somebody I have known from the day she was sworn in as a judge in the Lagos State judiciary. Actually, I remembered that when she was to be appointed, there was problem with the Bar Association. Many thought the appointment was not proper. And I remember the former CJ of Lagos State, Ligali Ayorinde, had to call me and ask me for my opinion on that appointment. What I told him, and I’m repeating here, is that whether you’re a chief magistrate or a senior magistrate or an ordinary lawyer, the qualification for appointment as a judge of the High Court in Nigeria under the constitution is that you must have been called to the bar for at least 10 years.
“So, I told the CJ that if you are sure this woman has been registered in the Supreme Court register as having been called to the bar, and meets the qualification of 10 years, then don’t have anything to be afraid of. Because I made my enquiries then about her because I was not running the magistrate court then, so, I didn’t have a first hand information about her character.
“But I can assure you that 90% of those people who I had talked to then confirmed that she is one of the most distinguished magistrates who will not take what you call charge and bail bribes- I’m sorry to use the word bribe. Whether her presence in the Supreme Court now is going to make any drastic change is what I can assure you, that I cannot guarantee that the Supreme Court will today change from its usual. But one thing I’m sure of, she’s very very keen in sweeping off all the bad eggs in the Supreme Court. If you claim there are no bad eggs in the Supreme Court, I, Robert Clark can tell you there were many of them there, and I passed through many of them, and I can point to any of them.”
“She’s a stickler for honesty and I have seen her grow in the judiciary. I can speak of an experience of over 50 years in the judiciary, and I can tell you I have not seen any other character like Kekere-Ekun on the bench. I pray God in his infinite mercy will give her more courage, and I can assure you she will do her best,” he added.
Clarke then addressed the talks of gender inequality within the judiciary as relating to CJN appointments, as Kekere-Ekun is the 2nd female acting in that capacity, saying, “That does not exist, let me be honest with you, because the appointment of a CJ of the Federation is based on seniority in the Supreme Court hierarchy. So, whether you’re a man or a woman, if you by any circumstance find yourself in that situation when there is a vacancy, gender does not matter. It only goes to show that the percentage of Nigerian judges today in the Supreme Court is made up of men rather than women.”
Ozioma Samuel-Ugwuezi
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