President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Joseph Daudu (SAN) has raised alarm over what he called the looming collapse of Nigeria’s legal system as a result of unnecessary emphasis on election cases.

Daudu spoke during the valedictory court session held yesterday in honour of retiring Justice Ikechi Francis Ogbuagu at the Supreme Court, Abuja.

The NBA President said that it was for this reason that the concept of Constitutional Court was recommended by the NBA to the National Assembly during the Constitutional Review exercise.

According to him, there is a very great congestion of cases in the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court. Using the Kaduna Judicial Division of the Court of Appeal as an example, he said it takes about 8-10 years for an appeal to be decided while in the Supreme Court it takes about six years for ordinary appeals to be concluded.

He blamed the ‘imminent collapse’ of the nation’s legal system on the looming congestion of cases caused by delays, saying that the culture of delivering judgments instantly was dying.

“A few months to general elections, the court is beginning to be inundated with pre-election cases, you are rest assured that this will continue until election petitions will be disposed off; an exercise which lasts for at least two years”.

The NBA president called on the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) Justice Aloysious Katsina-Alu to constitute and inaugurate the Administration of Justice Commission.

The NBA also faulted a system where all the justices of the Supreme Court are appointed from the Court of Appeal adding that it is scientifically flawed. “It amounts to inbreeding because only the mores and traditions of the Court of Appeal are exported to the Supreme Court.”

On corruption on the Bench, the NBA noted that it was not for nothing that the finality of certain courts in election matters has been displaced leaving finality to the Supreme Court.

He said if the warning signals raised on corruption in the judiciary are not heeded, jurisdiction may one days be taken away from regular courts on ele