Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun
On August 22, President Bola Tinubu swore in Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun as the new Chief Justice of Nigeria, succeeding Justice Olukayode Ariwoola who had retired.
Kekere Ekùn has no doubts, had a distinguished career in the bench having joined the Lagos State Judiciary as Senior Magistrate II and rose to the position of the State High Court Judge. She served as Chairman of Robbery and Firearms Tribunal, Zone II, Ikeja between November 1996 to May 1999.
She was appointed to the bench of the Nigerian courts of appeal in 2004 before her appointment as Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria in July 2013.
In 2020, Kekere-Ekun was on the seven-member panel that sacked Imo State governor, Emeka Ihedioha and declared that the winning candidate was Hope Uzodinma of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who originally came fourth in the election results. Ihedioha described the verdict as “unfair, unjust and does not reflect the voting that took place during the elections”, but said he would respect the judgement.
Her appointment makes her the second woman to become Nigeria’s Chief Justice after Justice Aloma Mariam Mukhtar. Kekere-Ekun also becomes the first woman from Southwest geopolitical zone of Nigeria to become Chief Justice of Nigeria.
The challenges before Kekere Ekùn are enormous, as her appointment comes at a time when the judiciary is on the crossroads and critical juncture . This arm of government is widely perceived to have lost its respect, dignity and moral high ground for multiplicity of reasons, ranging from political partisanship, dispensation of justice to the highest bidder, abuse of judiciary process, corruption and lack of rigour in arbitrations of cases, all these have eroded the respect hitherto accorded it.
Many have looked into the golden era of the Nigerian judiciary typified by such luminaries as Justices Kayode Eso, Anthony Aniagolu, Chukwudi Oputa, Mohammed Bello and others and wish that periclean era of judicial nobility were brought back.
Kékeré Ekùn is a woman of substance and an able administrator, and the current challenges bedeviling her realm is not strange to her. Her first task should be how to renew the confidence of the people on an institution that has lost its lustre in recent years, though the task may prove tasking, but she is undauntedly equal to the task of rebuilding the needed confidence.
For her legacy to remain in the touchstone of judicial history, she should have the gumption to resist political pressure, and do the work of rebuilding the judiciary, punish errancy and reward judicial officers who raise the banner of truth and impartiality in the dispensation of justice.
She must come up with a formula of dealing with post election cases such that political actors who cheat to victory must not be allowed the luxury of staying in office with impunity through fast dispensation of those cases.
How she goes about revamping the judiciary and restoring confidence will have ramifications for her apotheosis in Nigerian judiciary history.
