NJC meets, may extend Muhammad’s tenure as acting CJN | Nairalaw

The National Judicial Council on Wednesday started a two-day
meeting where issues of appointment into the office of the Chief
Justice of Nigeria are among top items on the agenda, The PUNCH
reports.

Our correspondent learnt that the NJC might at the end of its
meeting on Thursday (today) recommend to President Buhari the
extension of Justice Tanko Muhammad’s tenure as the acting CJN,
pending when the process of making a substantive appointment for
the topmost judicial office would be completed.

By virtue of section 231(4) of the Nigerian 1999 Constitution,
Justice Muhammad’s three-month tenure as the acting CJN ends on
April 25, and he cannot be re-appointed unilaterally by the
President without the NJC’s recommendation.

With the reported resignation of the suspended CJN, Justice
Walter Onnoghen, the need to extend Muhammad’s acting tenure was
said to be urgent.

“The NJC will likely recommend the extension of the acting CJN’s
tenure to avert a vacuum in the office because the process of
making the substantive appointment of a CJN cannot be completed in
about a week’s time when the tenure of the acting CJN, Justice
Muhammad, will elapse,” a source familiar with the NJC’s meeting
said.

Officials of the Federal Judicial Service Commission, the body
with constitutional powers of advising the NJC on the appointment
of the CJN, told our correspondent on Wednesday that the process of
appointing the substantive person for the topmost judicial position
had yet to start at the commission’s end.

Paragraph 13 of Part I of the Third Schedule of the Constitution
provides that “the Commission shall have power to – (a) advise the
National Judicial Council in nominating persons for appointment, as
respects appointments to the office of –

“(i) the Chief Justice of Nigeria;” among other judges and heads
of other federal courts.

FSJC officials explained to our correspondent that although the
process of appointing the CJN would start at the commission, the
NJC would need to officially inform the commission that the office
of the CJN was vacant.

“The meeting of the NJC today (Wednesday) and tomorrow
(Thursday) is expected to address the issue and send the necessary
notice to the FJSC,” another source said.

The NJC’s ongoing meeting would be the first routine meeting of
the council after a series of its emergency meetings which followed
President Muhammadu Buhari’s suspension of Justice Onnoghen as the
CJN and the immediate swearing-in of Justice Muhammad to replace
him in acting capacity, on January 25.

The NJC had at one of its recent emergency meetings set up a
panel to investigate various allegations of misconduct levelled
against Onnoghen and Muhammad.

On April 3, the council reviewed the report of its five-man
investigative panel and sent its recommendations which have not
been made public to Buhari.

Barely 24 hours after, Onnoghen, who is believed to have been
handed a negative verdict in the NJC’s recommendations, reportedly
resigned through a letter he submitted to Buhari.

Reports said Muhammad was cleared by the NJC as he was found not
to have done any wrong by submitting himself to being sworn in by
Buhari as acting CJN without NJC’s input.

In a report by The PUNCH, Muhammad had in his response to a
query by the NJC, claimed that President Buhari did not need the
permission of the council to appoint him as the acting CJN.

A group, Centre for Justice and Peace Initiative, had petitioned
the NJC, asking the council to remove Muhammad as a Justice of the
Supreme Court for allowing himself to be sworn in by the President
without recourse to the NJC.

Citing section 231(4) of the Constitution, however, Muhammad had
said it would only be required for the President to act based on
NJC’s recommendation only in the case of re-appointment in acting
capacity or appointment of a substantive CJN.

He stated, “In my respectful view, the National Judicial Council
has no role to play in the appointment of an acting Chief Justice
of Nigeria in the first instance, that is to say on first
appointment.

“The council comes in where the appointment as the acting CJN is
to be renewed or extended. I humbly refer to Section 231(4) of the
1999 Constitution.”