A former Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, Prof. Chidi Odinkalu, has accused the National Judicial Council (NJC) of manipulating judicial appointments by allocating positions to the children, spouses, and relatives of an entrenched elite he described as the “owners of the judiciary.”
Odinkalu made the allegations in a post on X (formerly Twitter) following the NJC’s recent publication of 80 names nominated for judicial appointments in superior courts of record.
The list comprises 53 nominees for High Courts, 20 for Sharia Courts of Appeal, seven for Customary Courts of Appeal, and two nominees for the office of Chief Judge in two states.
While the NJC has invited public input on the candidates within a 14-day window, Odinkalu questioned the sincerity of the process, describing it as a hollow exercise meant to legitimise pre-arranged appointments.
“As it turned out, the ‘slots’ had all been allocated to the sons, daughters, wives and relatives of some ‘owners of the judiciary,’” he wrote.
“The process of inviting @NigBarAssoc to comment was a cover for affording a figleaf of legitimacy to brazen looting of judicial appointments.”
The human rights lawyer raised multiple concerns, including the NJC’s failure to disclose what would be done with the feedback collected and its preparedness to process such information credibly in the digital age.
“People who don’t have a credible assurance as to how information that they provide will be handled are unlikely to respond with enthusiasm,” he noted.
Odinkalu further pointed out that in previous appointments, particularly during the tenure of the immediate past Chief Justice of Nigeria, feedback from the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) was either ignored or treated as an afterthought.
He cited an instance in which a request for the NBA’s input was only sent after the appointment process had closed, rendering the feedback useless.
“The NJC must do more than simply call for public comments. It must demonstrate both the capacity and the political will to treat the input it receives with seriousness,” he insisted.
“What needs to change is more than just inviting the public to send comments… If @njcNig wants to be taken seriously, it needs to show a capacity to process what it’ll get and the will to assure that what it gets will matter.”
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