The Senate is debating a bill that would expand the number of Supreme Court Justices from the current 21 to 30.
This is an effort to address the growing backlog of cases and boost the effectiveness of the supreme court.
This was revealed by Osita Izunaso, a senator representing Imo West and sponsor of the bill, at a press briefing held in Abuja on Friday to commemorate his two years in the 10th National Assembly.
Even though 11 judges were just appointed in 2023, fulfilling the constitutional requirement for the first time in Nigerian history, he maintained that the present number of justices is insufficient.
“Even with the full complement of 21 justices, the Supreme Court is overwhelmed. The volume of cases reaching the court daily is alarming. Some litigants are being given hearing dates as far ahead as 2027 and 2028,” Izunaso stated.
He said that in order to speed up the adjudication process, the new legislation would allow the top court to create more panels.
“Supreme Court justices typically sit in panels of five, or seven for constitutional matters. If we have 30 justices, it allows the formation of at least five panels simultaneously. That way, more cases can be handled at a faster pace,” he said.
But Izunaso’s proposal goes beyond merely adding more judges.
The senator is also pushing for a significant change in the types of cases that the Supreme Court considers, saying that the “judicial congestion caused by trivial matters” must stop.
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He questioned why matters like divorce cases, tenancy disagreements, and land disputes were permitted to make it all the way to the nation’s top court.
“Why should a land matter in my village end up in the supreme court?” he asked.
“Many of these issues should start from the customary court and end at the High Court.”
The people at those levels understand the context better. The apex court should be reserved for cases of national or constitutional importance, things like terrorism, homicide, and grand corruption.”
“Do you know that even tenancy disputes, like ‘pay me my rent’ or ‘my landlord kicked me out’, go all the way to the supreme court? This is clogging the system and delaying justice for more critical matters.”
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The lawmaker recalled a personal legal experience where a case involving deceased parties was only scheduled for hearing three years after a resolution had been reached among their descendants.
“The case was fixed for 2026, even though the matter had already been settled. That’s an indictment of our system,” he lamented.
Izunaso vehemently disagreed with the creation of regional supreme courts, which was proposed by certain proponents of judicial reform.
He is convinced that Nigeria should keep a single national supreme court but dramatically cut down on the number of cases that get up there.
“A unitary Supreme Court preserves the sanctity and unity of our judicial system. What we need is better filtration at lower level, not more Supreme Courts,” he said.
