Judicial Reform: Ayorinde SAN Proposes Uploading Court Decisions To A Central System For Judge Access

… As he emphasizes need for regional empowerment, unified central outlook

A legal practitioner, Chief Bolaji Ayorinde, has advocated for technological solution to the menace of conflicting court judgments.

Ayorinde told newsmen in Ibadan on Saturday that every court decision or judgment throughout the country should be uploaded into a central system which all judges could access.

He said this would give every judge the opportunity of prior knowledge on any case brought before him.

“This will help him or her know if the same parties have been in another court and on which matter an order has been made”.

Ayorinde also suggested that anybody found wanting in the delivery of conflicting court judgments should be penalised, saying the menace is an aberration that makes the law so uncertain.

“As a lawyer, I should be able to read a document, read the facts and predict 99 per cent that this is the way the law will go.

“Conflicting judgments are very bad, and they only lead to anarchy and chaos.

“Imagine two different parties getting two different judgments on the same case, with one having his own judgment in his pocket and the other having his own judgment in his pocket.

“Both (parties) will then go and call police and chaos will ensue. That’s t’s not good for administration of justice.

“However, as much as we complained, we still have judges who toil day and night, sometimes in non-conducive circumstances, to deliver judgment and justice,” he said.

The lawyer then urged the judiciary arm of government to make an effort to rebrand itself.

Speaking on Nigeria’s 64th independence anniversary, Ayorinde opined that “Nigeria as a country has not met its potential.

“Potentially we have not done very well. But that’s not to say there is no hope. However, before we can realise that hope, certain things must be in place.

“So, we must look at our polity. We remain as a nation, but we must be restructured.

“We must empower the regions to enable us have a very strong and unified outlook in the centre, and the regions should be allowed to develop at their pace.

So, I’m calling for a total restructuring of the nation’s political economy, so that generations coming after us will enjoy the benefits of a proper country,” he said.