The President , Major General Muhammadu Buhari ( retd .) , on Wednesday , decried what he described as the “terribly slow pace ” of justice administration in the Nigerian courts .
Buhari , who recalled how it took so long for the courts to decide and eventually dismiss the election petitions he filed to challenge his losses in the 2003, 2007 , and 2011 presidential polls , declared that the Nigerian justice system needed an urgent reform.
He suggested that the judiciary should put a 12 -month time limit on the hearing of criminal cases from the high court to the Supreme Court , while all civil cases should be concluded within 15 months .
Buhari spoke at the 60 th Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association , with the theme , “Stepping Forward .”
His speech was read at the virtual conference by the Vice-President , Prof . Yemi Osinbajo ( SAN ) .
Speaking about his experience, Buhari said , “ At the end , I lost all three cases . I wondered then , why it needed to take so long to arrive at a verdict and if I had won the case , someone who did not legitimately win the election would have been in office all that time .
“In 2019 , I was no longer petitioner ; I had now become a respondent in the case of Atiku and Buhari and the whole process took barely six months ; just over six months. What was the difference ? The law had changed since my own in 2003 , 2007 and 2011. You had now introduced time limits for election petitions . Everything must be done within a six to eight – month period. My question then is why can ’t we have a time limit for criminal cases ? Why can ’t we have a rule that will say a criminal trial all the way to the Supreme Court must not exceed 12 months ? And why can ’ t we do the same for civil cases ? Even if we say that civil cases must not go beyond between 12 and 15 months. I think that for me is stepping forward . ”
The president equally lamented the churning out of multiple and conflicting court orders by judges , noting that in the recent leadership crisis that rocked the ruling All Progressives Congress , no fewer than eight conflicting court orders were made by different judges in a space of six weeks .
Buhari also proposed a reform of the process of judges ’ appointment , recommending that aspiring judges should take tests .
