THE concept of rule of law as propounded by A.V. Dicey in 1860 in his book titled “The Supremacy of The Law,” was based on three main principles. The first is that the law is supreme and therefore supersedes any convention or regulation.
THE second is that human beings have certain inalienable fundamental human rights which should be enshrined and guaranteed by the state. And lastly a judiciary that is independent and should not be influenced by any other body not even the executive arm of government.
ALTHOUGH all these three principles help in promoting the practice of the rule of law, we think that the role that an independent judiciary plays in a democratic dispensation cannot be overemphasized. This is because in a democratic dispensation whereby the judiciary is under the domain of the executive, it becomes difficult for such a judiciary to operate effectively.
IT is in this respect that we support the call by the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Ms Betty Mould-Iddrisu, on the need for the judiciary to acknowledge the significance of their judgments on particularly constitutional matters. The verdicts of the courts in such matters can go a long way to shape and strengthen our 17 year fledgling democracy.
THE Attorney General made the above statement when she delivered a speech at the legal year ceremony of the Community Court of Justice in Abuja, Nigeria, on the theme: “Consolidation of the role of the judiciary in West Africa.”
MS MOULD-IDDRISU observed that the judiciary wields a lot of power coupled with the fact that it has the power of judicial review which mandates it to declare null and void decisions of both Parliament and Executive that contravene provisions of a constitution.
UNFORTUNATELY in many practicing democratic African countries the judiciary has been seen only in the area of interpreting the laws of the land. In some cases the judiciary has been seen as the extension of the executive and only subject to the whims and caprices of a sitting president. There have been instances in this country where the executive which has not been happy with a decision taken against it by the judges have had to bend the rules to twist justice to its favour. That is most unfortunate and such practices do not help our democracy.
INFACT, even though we are advocating for an independent judiciary we also believe that for our judges to be able to diligently dispense justice and carry out their duties effectively, it is imperative that they are adequately resourced. In this way the judges will be armed enough to dispense their functions without fear or favour.
WE can also build a very vibrant judiciary by computerizing our judiciary process. This was sometime started but it looks as if they were done to a few courts in the country which courts have become known as the Fast Track High Courts.
DEMOCRACY is very expensive to practice and therefore resourcing and computerizing our judiciary system must not be relegated to the background.