The newspapers are awash with the report that the outgoing Chief Justice of Nigeria would soon swear in Mr Justice Katsina-Alu as the new Chief Justice of Nigeria. We are told that the authorities for the proposal are section 2 of the Oaths Act, cap O1, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 and the Second Schedule to the Act. In the said Second Schedule the Chief Justice of the Federation is listed with other judicial officials under the column for persons to take oath, while the President or the Chief Justice of Nigeria or the Chief Justice of Nigeria are listed as the officers to administer or tender the oath to the judicial officers.
My view is that this is a dangerous and illegal proposal that is fraught with dangers. Commonsense dictates clearly that the Chief Justice of Nigeria can only swear in all the other judicial officers listed in section 2 except the Chief Justice of Nigeria. This is because for a person to occupy the office of the CJN his term of office must not have expired and if that is the case then the moment he swears in another before the expiration of his term there would be in existence at the same time two CJNs! That clearly could not have been the intention of the drafters of the Oaths Act. It certainly cannot be a sound argument to say that we would only have two CJNs for a short, nay insignificant, period of time. The point is that the law does not contemplate the existence of two CJNs at any point in time and if that is the case we must accept that it is unconscionable and illegal to do what the law does not and could not have envisaged.
Those supporting this patent and blatant illegality by the doctrine of necessity should have done better to ask the President who we are now told sign the budget on his sick bed to simply pass a declaration to the National Assembly; for once that is done the Acting President could easily swear in Mr Justice Katsina-Alu. The original sin therefore appears to be the non compliance with section 145 of the Constitution.
My simple advice to both Justices Katsina –Alu and Kutigi, both of whom I have a lot of respect for, is not to lend their weight or submit themselves to an illegal charade that would start Justice Katsina-Alu’s tenure on a wrong footing and end Justice Kutigi’s on a sad note. It is better for this illegal swearing in not to take place now particularly as budgets are being taken to Saudi Arabia. It would be regrettable if Justice Katsina-Alu’s judicial functions are challenged in court on the basis of the illegal swearing in. such a scenario, given the multiple and significant functions of the CJN, is better imagined. Again, my advice to the duo, Please don’t.
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