By Matilda Ikediobi Sola Akinyede is a lawyer and a former senator who represented Ekiti South. In this monitored interview,Akinyede discusses the potential benefits of having women lead both the National Judicial Council,NJC, and the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA). He also talks about reasons the NJC needs to be reformed.
Excerpts: For the first time in Nigeria’s history, women now lead both the Bench and the Bar. How much of a historic moment is this beyond the symbolism? I think it’s historic in the sense that women are wired to be nurturers.
They tend to take care of people and society in general. You don’t have as many pressures on them trying to make money and cut the rules out and all that. They tend to be better at providing service.
Are you sure you’re talking about women in the 21st century? To every rule, there is an exception. I find support in the first female Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Aloma Mukhtar.
She was the first female Chief Justice of Nigeria. She was well regarded by everybody, judicial community, legal community, as a fearless, independent person and incorruptible. Under her tenure, there were more judges who were reprimanded and removed from the judiciary than we have had in the past 10, 15 years.
Her tenure was regarded as the most impactful out of all the Chief Justices of Nigeria that we have had. That’s why I said that it is historic. When Justice Aloma Mukhtar was the Chief Justice of Nigeria, the president of the Bar Association was a man.
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