No Supreme Court (SC) in any country with a developed justice delivery system is an all comers affair. The function of the Supreme Court (SC), particularly in a Federation, is not to deliver justice in individual cases. It is to declare and develop the law for the benefit of all. The Supreme Court (SC) comes in only when there is some confusion in the law as declared that needs to be straightened out; when there is need to extend the law to new circumstances that have arisen or when the law requires change either because it was wrongly stated or it has become obsolete having regard to the evolution of the society. The primary function of the Supreme Court (SC) in a Federation is to interpret the Constitution, particularly when one level of Government has a dispute with another over the understanding and operation of a particular provision of the Constitution.
All other matters have no business coming to the Supreme Court (SC). They should end at the Court of Appeal (CA). All appeals to the Supreme Court (SC) from the CA should be by leave of the Supreme Court (SC). Consideration for grant of leave should not be as to whether the issue raised is one of fact or law. It should be whether or not the law is sufficiently established and clear on the area of the appeal. It should be strictly on whether or not it falls into any of the circumstances mentioned above, like where there are contradictory decisions of the CA or the Supreme Court (SC) itself on the same issue or where the appellant argues that the law as declared is wrong or obsolete and ought to be changed.
We must free the Supreme Court (SC) to perform its prime constitutional role of declaring and developing the law. We gave a right of appeal on every question of law to the Supreme Court (SC) with the hope of developing the law. The law is now developed in almost every sphere. The pruning and grafting that is now required is hampered, if not completely crippled, by the deluge of appeals which makes it almost impossible for their lordships to sieve the wheat from the chaff. We need to block them. When you open a law report what you see are the same elementary issues being discussed over and over. Two or three decades ago, we went through the law reports to learn the law. You can’t do that now. You would be reading of the same issues and principles over and over ad nauseam.
The Supreme Court (SC) is in need of urgent rescue.
Chuks Nwachuku
