NBA Faults Plan To Raise Supreme Court Justices To 30
The Nigerian Bar Association has rejected a proposal by the Senate to increase the number of justices on the Supreme Court bench from 21 to 30.
The proposed measure aims to address the growing backlog of cases and enhance the efficiency of the country’s apex court.
According to the sponsor of the bill, Osita Izunaso (Imo West), the current number of justices at the apex court is insufficient, even after the 2023 appointments that brought the bench to its full constitutional complement.
Izunaso stated that despite having 21 justices, the Supreme Court remained overwhelmed by the alarming volume of cases it received daily.
He suggested that expanding the bench to 30 justices would enable the court to form additional panels and accelerate case resolution.
Reacting to the bill, NBA President, Afam Osigwe, SAN, said that the solution to the Supreme Court’s challenges lied in constitutional amendments rather than merely increasing the number of justices.
Osigwe added that increasing the number of justices would not address the systemic issues, stating that even with a full complement of 21 justices, the court struggled to cope with its workload over the past two years.
He argued that constitutional amendments should focus on limiting the types of cases that can be appealed to the Supreme Court.
Osigwe stressed that cases of constitutional importance or those requiring resolution of conflicts in decisions by the Court of Appeal should be the only types of cases allowed to reach the apex court.
He argued that routine cases with settled legal principles should not burden the apex court.
Osigwe also called for improvements in the court’s operational processes, including the adoption of advanced case management technologies.
He stressed that without the changes, increasing the number of justices to 30 or even 50 would not resolve the inefficiencies.
