IS THE COURT OF APPEAL INFERIOR TO THE SUPREME COURT?

Emeka Ugwuonye’s essay titled “Katsina-Alu vs. Salami, Losers and Winners” is undoubtedly a good piece but I disagree with his postulation that a Justice in the court of appeal is jurisprudentially inferior to a Justice of the Supreme Court. In theory it may be so but in practise it is arguable. By statute the Court of Appeal is an intermediary Court but not in reality inferior to the Supreme Court as such. The preamble of the Court of Appeal Act, 2004 baldly asserts that An Act to establish the Court of Appeal as an intermediate Court between the High Court and other subordinate Courts and the Supreme Court and matters ancillary thereto.

There are many instances where there may no precedent laid down by the Supreme Court on a particular aspect of the law. It follows that in certain circumstances decisions of the Court of Appeal are adopted with approval by the Supreme Court when there is no precedent laid down by the Supreme Court on a particular issue. Also in the order of precedence a Justice of the Supreme Court is at par with the President of the Court of Appeal. By Section 2 (1) of the Court of Appeal Act, Justices of the Supreme Court and the President of the Court of Appeal enjoy the same salary but it is more prestigious being President of the Court of Appeal.



Section 3 subsections (1) & (2) of the Court of Appeal Act, 2004 (as amended) provides thus:”

(1) The President shall take precedence of all other Justices of the Court of Appeal, and the other Justices shall take precedence after the President in accordance with such directions as may be given by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.



(2) The President shall rank equal to a Justice of the Supreme Court and the other Justices of the Court of Appeal shall rank next to the Justices of the Supreme Court and equal to the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court”

See Sections 4 and 5 of the Supreme Court Act, 2004.

The President of the Court of Appeal has awesome powers. He is the Head of a Court made up of Abuja, Benin, Enugu, Lagos, Ibadan, Calabar, Jos, Kaduna, Ilorin, Akure, Owerri, Port Harcourt and Sokoto judicial divisions. The Court of Appeal is composed of more than sixty Judges. The President of the Court of Appeal is vested with the power of appointment of Judges of the Election Tribunal By order of precedence the s throughout the Country including the Panel of the Court of Appeal that is vested with the jurisdiction to hear election petition concerning the election of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The President of the Court of Appeal is next in rank to the Chief Justice of Nigeria even though in theory he is at par with the Justices of the Supreme Curtain the past we had Justices of the Justice of the Supreme Court being seconded to the Court of Appeal.

In 1976 when the Court of Appeal was created Justice Dan Ibekwe from the Supreme Court was appointed the President of the Court of Appeal. Justice Dan Ibekwe is the thirty third (33) Justice to be appointed in the Supreme Court of Nigeria. When Justice Dan Onurah Ibekwe died, a Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Mammal Nasiru was appointed President of the Court of Appeal. Justice Mamman Nasir and one time Chief Justice of Nigeria, Honourable Justice Mohammed Bello were appointed into the Supreme Court of Nigeria by the then Federal Military Government under General Murtala Mohammed in early 1976. Justice Mamman Nasir is the thirty seventh (37) Justice to be appointed in the Supreme Court of Nigeria. While Justice Mohammed Bello is the thirty sixth (36). There was precedence in the time past when a Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Buba Ado was seconded to the Court of Appeal as a Judge. Justice Buba Ardo is the fortieth first (41) Justice to be appointed in the Supreme Court of Nigeria.

I therefore do not think that it is a big deal to appoint a President of the Court of Appeal as a Justice of the Supreme Court. I do not also think that it is a promotion to move a President of the Court of Appeal to the Supreme Court to be junior to other Justices who were already in Supreme Court before his elevation. There are several Justices in the Supreme Court who were junior to Justice Ayo Salami when they were in Court of Appeal before their elevation to the Supreme Court. It follows that the elevation of Justice Salami to the Supreme Court from his exalted position as President of the Court of Appeal was unprecedented and unconventional. This is why some school of thought believed that the elevation was made in bad faith and calculated to humiliate Justice Salami.



Okoi Obono-Obla