*VICE PRESIDENT YEMI OSINBAJO SPEECH*.
At the Justice Research Institute webinar on “Selection and Appointment of Judges: Lessons for Nigeria.”

I'll like to commend the Justice Institute for the quality of the speakers here present. The topic at hand today has to many contours to it as its sphere of influence of wide. The question of the integrity of our judges selection process needs to ring loud as fair as possible as these judges influence the economy, elections, social justice and even our democracy.

The question of who influences the biggest decision makers is thus very important. The process is under pressure from the elite who want to own things and sometimes Judges are included in the things they want to own. The politicians especially want their own persons on the bench to ensure that election results that go to the tribunal come out favorable for them.

The unity that Federal Character was supposed to establish had been bastardized to now only ensure that people with similar agendas from the same location tend to gang up and grab things for themselves instead of ensuring that the the diversity and equal representation necessary to give the notion of oneness thrives.

Every nation that's succeeded made up it's mind at some point to become so and usually the first step is to commence asking the frank and honest questions as to how to appoint honest and deligent umpires because we must all admit that interests influence the process.

We must decide to an objective process to regourously examine those who sit on the bench. When Nigeria wants to win football matches we know how to pick the right players for each position so also in the judiciary, we already have paperwork all that is left is the will to do right by ourselves.

Developed Nations were at where we currently are now and they came together to ensure that institutionalized corruption was exiled by putting in a framework that refined the process of deciding who becomes a judge.

The time to have this discussion is now and I'm glad that the polity is well represented here; the Senate President and the Speaker House of Representatives, the Judiciary with the CJN, all the SANs and Silks, as well as the entire participants of the webinar. Together we can bring about reforms that would translate to a better Judiciary and a Greater Nigeria.

Let me conclude by bringing up the situation in Lagos State when I was there Attorney General. We defined the process by ensuring that the people nominated were extensively examined after intensive background checks and for those who scaled through the process we ensured they were adequately remunerated to help sheild them from corruption.

We had politicians come forward then to say that "this is our turn to choose the judges, but we had to refuse them as we didn't want to leave the judiciary the same way we'd met it when it was a case of turn by turn.

Webinars like this must continue and should translate into a will to actually make reforms that would strengthen the process of the selection of Judges as this would only bode well for the country.

Let me conclude by bringing up the situation in Lagos State when I was there Attorney General. We defined the process by ensuring that the people nominated were extensively examined after intensive background checks and for those who scaled through the process we ensured they were adequately remunerated to help sheild them from corruption.


Just IF this is extended to all sectors, Nigeria will be a better place.

It was a lovely speech from the VP. Generally, the will to drive for reforms has to be in the mind of every individual. The judiciary has to be upright at all times.

This is awesome, the selection of judicial system should be transparent to all