₦airaland Forum

naptu2:
[size=14pt]Superior courts of record in Nigeria[/size]

Monday will be a very interesting day.

Let's go back to the basics.


Superior Courts of record refer to all the courts presided over by judges trained in law where there is a duty to record and publish for public access proceedings leading down to a judicial pronouncement. The superior courts of record in Nigeria are listed in section 6(5) of the 1999 constitution.

Inferior courts, on the other hand, may or may not have legal practitioners as presiding officers and are often not obliged to record all proceedings in any matter.




Constitution Of The Federal Republic Of Nigeria (1999).

6. (1) The judicial powers of the Federation shall be vested in the courts to which this section relates, being courts established for the Federation.

(2) The judicial powers of a State shall be vested in the courts to which this section relates, being courts established, subject as provided by this Constitution, for a State.

(3) The courts to which this section relates, established by this Constitution for the Federation and for the States, specified in subsection (5) (a) to (I) of this section, shall be the only superior courts of record in Nigeria; and save as otherwise prescribed by the National Assembly or by the House of Assembly of a State, each court shall have all the powers of a superior court of record.

(4) Nothing in the foregoing provisions of this section shall be construed as precluding:-

(a) the National Assembly or any House of Assembly from establishing courts, other than those to which this section relates, with subordinate jurisdiction to that of a High Court;

(b) the National Assembly or any House of Assembly, which does not require it, from abolishing any court which it has power to establish or which it has brought into being.

(5) This section relates to:-

(a) the Supreme Court of Nigeria;

(b) the Court of Appeal;

(c) the Federal High Court;

(d) the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja;

(e) a High Court of a State

(f) the Sharia Court of Appeal of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja;

(g) a Sharia Court of Appeal of a State;

(h) the Customary Court of Appeal of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja;

(i) a Customary Court of Appeal of a State;

(j) such other courts as may be authorised by law to exercise jurisdiction on matters with respect to which the National Assembly may make laws; and

(k) such other court as may be authorised by law to exercise jurisdiction at first instance or on appeal on matters with respect to which a House of Assembly may make laws

http://www.nigeria-law.org/ConstitutionOfTheFederalRepublicOfNigeria.htm


Now that quote above is from the constitution as it was in 1999. It has since been amended and here we are concerned with the 3rd amendment.


The National Industrial Court was originally intended to be a superior court of record, but the framers of both the 1979 and 1999 constitutions did not list the NIC as a court of record. This led to confusion and the National Assembly (in both the 2nd and 4th republics) as well as the Federal Military Government (via the Trade Disputes Decree of 1992) attempted to solve this problem by enacting legislation that conferred the status of a court of record on the NIC.

However, in Bureau of Public Enterprise V. National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) (2010) ( http://lawaspire.com.ng/2014/06/national-union-of-electricity-employees-anor-v-bureau-of-public-enterprises/ ), the Supreme Court ruled that parts of the Trade Disputes Act (1992) were in conflict with the constitution and therefore those sections were void. The only way in which the NIC could be made a superior court of record would be by an amendment of the constitution.


The National Assembly quickly began the process of amending the constitution in 2010 and the NIC was thus made a superior court of record by the 3rd amendment to the 1999 constitution (signed by the President on March 4th, 2011). The constitution now reads:


Constitution Of The Federal Republic Of Nigeria 1999 (as amended).

(5)      This section relates to:-

(a)      the Supreme Court of Nigeria;

(B-)      the Court of Appeal;

(c)      the Federal High Court;

(cc)    The National Industrial Court

(d)      the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja;

(e)      a High Court of a State;

(f)      the Sharia Court of Appeal of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja;

(g)      a Sharia Court of Appeal of a State;

(h)      the Customary Court of Appeal of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja;

(i)       a Customary Court of Appeal of a State;

http://www.lawnigeria.com/CONSTITUTIONHUB/Constitution.html

(Also remember sections 1(1) and 1(3) of the constitution.

1. (1) This Constitution is supreme and its provisions shall have binding force on the authorities and persons throughout the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

(3) If any other law is inconsistent with the provisions of this Constitution, this Constitution shall prevail, and that other law shall, to the extent of the inconsistency, be void.

)

Note: The Code of Conduct Tribunal is not listed as a superior court of record. The Federal High Court is a superior court of record.

Also note that appeals from court martials and the National Industrial Court (before the constitutional amendment) go to the Appeal Court (see section 240 of the constitution), but that did not make court martials and the National Industrial court superior courts of record.

just2help:
Police training school ikeja website? are you kidding me? which 5 yr old played with his computer like that?

i get your point bro but i could not just overlook that design!!

just2help:
biko can you enlighten us on this spy policing again?