Judicial officers from all parts of the country Converged, last week, in Abuja for the 2015 All Nigerian Judges Conference (ANJC).
The weeklong 2015 All Nigerian Judges Conference (ANJC), according to the Administrator of the National Judicial Institute (NJI), Justice Rosaline Bozimo, was a stock taking event when judges from all over the country converged to reflect on their activities over a period of time, thereby providing an insight into what has been achieved.
The theme of this year’s conference is: “The Judiciary as a Veritable Instrument for Nurturing Democracy in Nigeria”.
The conference also provided a platform to strategise on how to meet the important and critical challenges in the dispensation of justice in the country.
The ANJC is also one of the most important functions of the National Judicial Institute.
Bozimo said: “Section 3(2) c of the National Judicial Institute
Act authorises the institute to organize, once in two years, the ANJC of the superior courts. It is in fulfillment of this mandate that we are all gathered here again to participate in the 2015 All Nigeria Judges’ Conference.
“The institute by its mandate is also empowered to conduct courses for all categories of judicial officers and staff with a view to expanding knowledge and skills in order to enhance performance and productivity in accordance with the institute’s motto: “Knowledge for Excellence.
“In this regard, the updating of knowledge through continuing judicial education is very fundamental in attaining judicial excellence.”
This year, the institute raised the bar of result oriented research, expanded the frontier of judicial knowledge in a very profound manner and concomitantly made substantial contributions to the development of law and justice in Nigeria.
According to the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) Justice Mahmud Mohammed, the 2015 edition of the ANJC was in keeping with the NJI’s aim of providing qualitative continuing judicial education.
The conference was declared open by President Muhammadu Buhari, who was ably represented by Vice President Professor Yemi Osinbajo.
Precedents have shown that a stable democracy can only be attained when the judiciary is free to uphold the rule of law within a country.
In fact, the constitution prescribes the institutional independence of the judiciary under Section 6 of its provisions. Sections 121 (3) and 162 (9) further guarantee fiscal independence for the judiciary. This a fact was acknowledged by the other arms of government with the recent resolutions by the federal and some state governments to pay the judiciary its outstanding and future budgetary allocations as and when due.
Of importance was the paper titled: “Appointment of Judicial Officers: Roles of the Federal and States Judicial Service Commissions/Committee, the National Judicial Council, the President, State Governors and the National and State Houses of Assemblies.”
This paper gave a clear and unambiguous exposition of the roles of the participants in the appointment of judges under the Constitution and the Revised NJC Guidelines and Procedural Rules for the Appointment of Judicial Officers of all Superior Courts of Record in Nigeria 2014.
Another stimulating topical discussion during this conference was the paper titled: “Stimulation and Sustenance of Economic Development through the use of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Systems in the Judicial Process: the Supreme Court Perspective, Court of Appeal Perspective, Federal and States High Courts Perspective, National Industrial Court Perspective, Sharia Court of Appeal Perspective and the Customary Court of Appeal perspective.”
The session explored a topic considered to be of great importance to the development of the judiciary.
In keeping with international best practice, the leadership of the judiciary was concerned not only with the technical proficiency the judges but also mindful of their total wellbeing, leading to the scheduling of a topic on “Controlling Cancer, Hypertension, Heart-related Diseases and Muscular-Skeletal Disorders in Judicial Officers.”
