On May 4, 2023, news broke of the Nasarawa State Assembly giving judges of its Area Courts 10 years to obtain a Law degree or risk losing their jobs.
This was mainly due to how sketchy the entire idea seemed. Did that mean that there were judges in Nigeria who didn’t study law? How do they judge the law then?
In this article, we’ll explain exactly how and why this is possible; to do so, we’ll first look at Nigeria’s court system.
There are two sets of courts in the Nigerian Law system. These are:
- The superior courts of record
- The inferior courts of record
What are the superior courts of record?
The Nigerian constitution establishes the superior courts of record and they include the State High Court, the Federal High Court, the Sharia Court of Appeal and the Customary Court of Appeal, the Court of Appeal and lastly, the highest court in Nigeria, the Supreme Court.
What are the inferior courts of record?
On the other hand, the inferior courts are not because they are of lower standards but because they’re established by laws other than the Nigerian constitution. And they include the Magistrate or District Courts and the Area and Customary Courts.
What are Area and Customary Courts?
Individual states establish these courts and have jurisdiction over locals only. The judges in these courts apply Laws and customs native to the area in criminal and civil cases, and the punishments or judgements are reasonable and just. Also, it’s important to note that the heads of Customary and Area Courts are typically called “President(s)”.
In Northern Nigeria, these are called Area Courts, in the South, they’re known as Customary or District Courts. Almost every Nigerian state
- It’s a body of unwritten rules applicable to a community.
- It’s dynamic changing to suit the community’s needs.
- It doesn’t owe its existence to a legislature, but it’s developed from the customs and traditions of the people who accept and recognise the rules as binding.
Many people prefer to have their cases determined by the Area or Customary Courts as the procedure is more straightforward and cheaper when compared to common law courts.
The jurisdiction of Area and Customary over civil and criminal cases includes disagreements over land, matrimonial cases and children custody, debt and damage, cases relating to inheritance, chieftaincy issues, stealing livestock and farm produce and many more.
As earlier mentioned, Customary Laws vary from state to state, and this also determines the qualifications of the members and President or judge of the Area or Customary Court. In Lagos state, to be qualified as a President of a Customary Court, according to Section 5 of its Customary Laws, you must:
- Be a person of proven character and good standing in the society.
- Be a person of adequate means
- Have an educational qualification not below a secondary school Certificate
- Be at least 50 years of age
- Be properly placed by circumstances to perform the functions of a member of the Customary Court.
In Akwa Ibom state, members and Presidents of the Customary Courts have typically retired civil servants who are traditional office holders and chiefs. Currently, the Presidents of the Courts are legal practitioners who have spent at least five years at the Bar.
And Nasarawa state is seeking to follow in the footsteps of Akwa Ibom with the proposed Bill, “A Law to amend the Nasarawa State Area Courts Law 2022 and For Other Matters Related Therewith”, which insists that the Area Court judges get Law degrees within the next ten years.
Hopefully, this article has given you a better understanding of the situation and has shed light on some of the nuances of the Nigerian legal system.
