Nigeria: The chief justice of Nigeria, Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad, has resigned from his seat, as per the sources.
The 68-year-old Muhammad, who has been the nation’s leading judge for over three years but has served at the Supreme Court since 2005, said that he is deciding to retire due to health issues.
This was confirmed by Ahuraka Isah on Monday, 27 June.
Earlier, in 2019, President Muhammadu Buhari chose Muhammad as the acting chief justice after suspending his predecessor, Justice Walter Onnoghen, just a few weeks ahead of an election in which the judiciary mainly plays an essential role.
The suspension of the most senior judge of Nigeria was regarded as disregarding to international human rights standards on the independence of the judiciary and the separation of powers, Diego GarcÃa-Sayán, an ex-Peruvian justice minister and United Nations special rapporteur on the independence of judges, stated at the time.
The resignation of Muhammad has come a few weeks after a rare complaint by 14 out of 16 Supreme Court justices of Nigeria regarding several welfare and logistical issues, which also included a lack of research assistants and insufficient accommodation leaked.
The letter of complaint to Muhammad by judges is the first in the court in nearly 60 years of history. It comprised problems related to legal research assistants provided to justices, unreliable electricity supply to the court, allegedly decrepit work vehicles equipped to judges, many of which were claimed to be of substandard, as well as a lack of internet in their chambers and residences.
In reply, Muhammad stated the apex court had lived up to its constitutional responsibility but did not live outside of its environment and had been impacted severely by the harsh economic realities facing the nation, which presently spends around 90% of its revenue on servicing debt.
