According to information obtained by Peoples Gazette this week, Olukayode Ariwoola, the Chief Justice of Nigeria, has designated his younger brother, Adebayo Ariwoola, as the newly appointed auditor for the National Judicial Council (NJC).
In his new capacity, Adebayo Ariwoola will be in charge of the NJC’s internal audit unit, giving him considerable power to guarantee the commission’s financial accountability and integrity.
His duties encompass assessing internal controls, closely examining accounting procedures, and guaranteeing adherence to legal norms.
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The nomination is significant because it creates a close familial relationship between the head of an important oversight unit and Justice Ariwoola, a figurehead of supreme authority within the court.
“It is about transparency here,” Chido Onumah, an anti-corruption campaigner, said. “There is no chance that the auditor will do anything to the detriment of his older brother, and there lies the fundamental issue with the appointment.”
The African Centre for Media and Information Literacy (AFRICMIL) coordinator, Mr. Onumah, stressed the importance of this understanding and said that the chief justice should usually be aware of it.
“Even if the brother were qualified to be the auditor, it is part of the sacrifices that they must collectively make for the sanctity of the chief justice’s office, for being in leadership position,” said Mr. Onumah.
He added, “If the brother were appearing before him in a case, his opponent could validly ask Justice Ariwoola to recuse himself from the matter, and the same logic just follows that two members of the same family cannot be watching over each other in a government institution.”
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According to Peoples Gazette, Mr. Ariwoola worked for the NJC as an accountant prior to being promoted to the top job.
Lanre Suraj, a public affairs analyst, believes that this promotion should be given some leeway.
“We should be fair to assume that the NJC will not skip critical hierarchies to appoint the brother of the CJN as auditor,” he said. “Every civil servant has the right to aspire to senior positions within their sphere.”
Mr. Suraj concedes that the matter is complex, saying that the National Judicial Council (NJC) and the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) ought to give further thought to the apparent conflict of interest.
According to Mr. Suraj, the person who takes up the role of auditor needs to be “impartial,” “upright,” and “have a level of independence.” “They (the CJN and his brother) will not be favoured in that consideration due to public expectation and assumption.”
“For me, I think it will be more than important for the CJN and the NJC to find a way around it without putting both the office of the CJN and that of the auditor in that moral complications and burden before the public,” he added.
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This development corresponds with a tumultuous time in the public-judiciary relationship. The judiciary’s disdain for popular opinion has been evident in its recent string of significant decisions on issues essential to the nation’s democracy.
Well-known jurists have taken a defensive posture in order to divert public attention from the growing mistrust of the court as a whole.
Observers point out that Justice Ariwoola’s recent claims that the public’s opinion has no bearing on judicial duties appear to be part of a larger trend in the court. This position, which purports to be grounded in legal principles, overlooks a crucial fact: a major source of opposition to court decisions is the belief that legalese is given more weight than justice and equity under the law.
This attitude was made clear in September when members of the appellate court panel in charge of the presidential election petition tribunal openly rejected public outcries for justice, labelling them as calculated attempts by rival political parties to sabotage election outcomes and frighten the legal system.
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The director of the Take-it-Back Movement in Nigeria, Juwon Sanyaolu, voiced concerns about what he saw as virtually all government agencies paying little attention to how the public views the institutions they are responsible for.
Mr. Sanyaolu draws attention to a concerning tendency, pointing out that different government branches give little thought to what the population thinks and feels.
“We are witnessing a system of ‘anything goes’ under the ruling All Progressives Congress where senior public officials have no regard for what is publicly tenable,” he said. “I think it is condemnable and improper.”
Mr. Sanyaolu emphasizes that the possibility of compromising the integrity of the auditor’s office is not just hypothetical but a real threat based on visible assumptions.
“We have seen the corruption of due process and public institutions on many fronts. There have been repeated internal disagreements within the judiciary itself about the disbursement of the funds it receives, so the fact that the auditor could easily become his brother’s accomplice should there be an infringement or abuse of power if not far-fetched,” he added.
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Members of the judiciary frequently object to the budget and spending decisions made by the chief justice and other institution directors. In the past, notwithstanding the financial allocations received, complaints have been made through strongly worded memos requesting executive assistance to address top judges’ poor working conditions.
Due to declining working circumstances, 13 Supreme Court judges criticised the chief justice in 2020. Musa Dattijo Mohammed, one of the justices who signed the petition, claimed in his retirement speech later in 2023 that the federal judiciary’s allocation of almost N160 billion had not resulted in better working conditions for the judges.
“Despite the phenomenal increases in the sums appropriated and released to the judiciary, Justices and officers’ welfare and the quality of service the judiciary render have continued to decline. It is instructive to inquire what the judiciary also does with its allocations. Who is responsible for the expenditure? An unrelenting searchlight needs to be beamed to unravel how the sums are expended,” he said.
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