By Our Correspondent <\/p>\n
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, Senator Niyi Adegbonmire, has asserted that Senate being the highest legislative body of the country, should always act in national interest, so as to avoid unnecessary strife in the polity, as well as promote peace and progress in general.<\/p>\n
Adegbonmire made this assertion while fielding questions from journalists, after the Senate confirmed President Bola Tinubu’s nominee, Hon. Justice Oyewole Joseph Olubunmi Kayode, as a Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria.<\/p>\n
He posited that the Senate’s constitutional role is not to oppose the Executive blindly when there is no need to do so, arguing that any opposition must be based on provable facts and not sentiments or unverifiable speculations.<\/p>\n
Adegbonmire also insisted that the Senate, being the highest legislative body of the country, should always act in national interest, so as to avoid unnecessary strife in the polity, as well as promote peace and progress in general.<\/p>\n
He emphasized that the confirmation process was thorough and transparent, with the nominee’s curriculum vitae circulated to all Senators ahead of time.<\/p>\n
Senators asked substantive questions, all of which Justice Oyewole answered convincingly, demonstrating competence, depth and readiness for the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n
Adegbonmire noted that the National Judicial Council (NJC) subjects prospective Justices to rigorous assessment based on years on the bench, judicial conduct, performance, experience and professional integrity.<\/p>\n
Only candidates who pass this demanding process are recommended to the President, alongside detailed reports and scoring, he added.<\/p>\n
His words: “When it comes to nomination of justice of the Supreme Court, if you look at it, there are conditions in the constitution on who qualifies to be nominated. Secondly, the National Judicial Council does an exercise where people are nominated. <\/p>\n
“They go through a process, and it is after the completion of that process where all sorts of things are put into place: the number of years on the bench, your experience, the kind of cases you conducted or sat upon, your demeanor, etc. It is after that process that a recommendation is made to Mr. President.<\/p>\n
“Now, when that resolution goes to the President, the minutes of the meeting of the NJC is also circulated to Mr. President to look at the scoring and how everybody was rated. It is based on that that the President now makes a nomination to the Senate for confirmation and when that nomination comes to us, all of those processes, what the meeting of the NJC, the scoring etc is also given to us to look at. So, we don’t do it in abstract. <\/p>\n
“We look at those things and decide whether the person is worthy and qualifies to be on the bench of the Supreme Court. So, you know I must say something, there is this tendency of the press to assume that the way the Legislature works is to be in opposition to the Executive. I don’t know which democracy says that. So, do we then say that where a person qualifies simply because we want to show that we’re in opposition to the Mr. President we then say you are not qualified. Is that the way to run a government? <\/p>\n
“So, we except you have a reason and if Mr. President has done his homework very well in always recommending people who are appropriate, it is our duty to uphold those nominations for as long as they don’t run foul of any law. Let us not come with this impression of why is every nomination by Mr. President has been approved by the Senate? No no no no please, let’s not get things wrong. There\u2019s absolutely nothing wrong with that.”<\/p>\n
Also, while responding to a question on the performance of the Judiciary, the lawmaker cautioned against judging the Judiciary solely through the lens of controversial court decisions.<\/p>\n
“Litigation naturally produces winners and losers, and dissatisfaction with judgments should not translate into wholesale condemnation of the judicial system. Allegations of injustice must be weighed against facts, evidence and due process, not sentiment or speculation,” he said.<\/p>\n
Adegbonmire reaffirmed the Senate’s commitment to protecting judicial independence, strengthening the rule of law and upholding constitutional governance, saying that the Senate’s confirmation of Justice Oyewole is a testament to its role in shaping the nation’s judicial architecture.<\/p>\n
The confirmation came after President Tinubu formally transmitted the nomination to the Red Chamber, seeking legislative approval in line with the provisions of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).<\/p>\n
The process was conducted strictly within constitutional boundaries, with the Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters Committee leading the screening exercise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Our Correspondent The Chairman, Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, Senator Niyi Adegbonmire, has asserted that Senate being the highest legislative body of the country, should always act in national interest, so as to avoid unnecessary strife in the polity, as well as promote peace and progress in general. Adegbonmire made […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8992,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[4868,334,679,1244],"class_list":["post-10764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-general","tag-peace","tag-progress","tag-promote"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10764"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10764\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10765,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10764\/revisions\/10765"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}