On Monday, Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), lamented that Nigerians were the world’s most litigious population and that this posed a serious threat to the country’s judicial system.
The CJN recently installed 63 Senior Advocates of Nigeria, SAN, into office.
The Nigerian public was urged by Justice Ariwoola to drastically reduce litigation and embrace alternative dispute resolution methods without necessarily overtaxing the judicial system.
He continued by saying that not all disputes should be resolved in court.
“In every little disagreement, we rush to court; and in every lost case, we rush to appeal, even up to the Supreme Court, no matter how little the issue might be. That has obviously accounted for the several appeals pending in the Supreme Court,’ he said.
He explained that there are currently over 4,741 unresolved cases in the judiciary, 1,392 of which are criminal cases.
On the 62 new Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SAN), Ariwoola said, “After conducting the specified screening and filtration exercises, the LPPC came up with 62 successful candidates who, by all standards, can be regarded as eminently deserving of the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria.”
