National Industrial Court: Our journey from obscurity –Justice Adejumo, President By FEMI ADEOTI

For 25 years, the National Industrial Court (NIC), remained practically moribund. The court sat only in Lagos for those years. It was clearly unknown and its decisions and pronouncements hardly respected.

Its president, Justice Babatunde Adejumo testified: “On my assumption of office, I realized that there was nothing on record to show how superior the court is. Nothing to even make it the court that can meet the yearnings and aspirations of the founding fathers.

“When I came, we were in Lagos in a duplex that was allocated to the court since 1976. Whenever it rained we would not be able to sit because the place was always water-logged.”

That was in 2003. All that have changed now. the court is fast wearing new look with the establishment of eight divisions across the country.

“Today, we have our Lagos office in Ikoyi: We have the Abuja office and the headquarters will be built soon. We have our court in Enugu. Ibadan and Kano offices will be commissioned soon. We also have on-going projects in Jos, Maiduguri and Calabar which we hope that before the end of the year will be ready for commission.”

Daily Sun visited the NIC offices under construction in Ibadan and Enugu, and spoke with Justice Adejumo in his Abuja office.

Excerpts:

In the beginning

The Nigerian Industrial Court (NIC) was established in 1976 to take care of trade disputes between employers and employees, workers and workers, trade unions and workers and trade unions and trade unions.

I was a judge in Ondo State between 1998 and 2003. I was appointed to head the NIC as the president on April 14, 2003 and I was sworn in on May 5, 2003. So I took over from that date. On my assumption of office I realized that there was nothing on record to show how superior the court is, and nothing to even make it the court that can meet the yearnings and aspiration of the founding fathers. I was a parliamentarian in the Ondo State House of Assembly between 1992 and 1993. I was the deputy chief registrar of the Supreme Court for three years until I was appointed a High Court judge in Ondo State.

With my background, I felt things were not going the way they should go. So, I made a representation to the then President of the Federation, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. He was impressed with it and said whatever would make the court what it is will be given to the court. That was how we started the journey in 2003.

But I realized then that the safety is to have an enabling law for the court. The president said I should work in corporation with the then Attorney General of the Federation, Chief Akin Olujimi. We did which led to a bill being sent to the National Assembly.

There were public hearings and all stakeholders were invited by the National Assembly. At the end of the day, the NIC Bill 2006 became an act of the National Assembly. The rules of court were made and on August 1, 2007, the NIC Rules became enforceable and that was how we started.

When I came I met three judges on ground who were members then under the old law. They called them members, they were no judges. Now we are 10, all together, I as the president and nine others, only one is not a lawyer. Three are P.hd holders, one was an attorney general of Ondo State, five were former chief registrars, one is a senior lawyer. So today, in terms of structure, manpower, legislation, we have tried.

When I came, we were in Lagos in a duplex that was allocated to the court since 1976. Whenever it rained we could not sit because the place was always water-logged. Today, we have our Lagos office in Ikoyi. We have the Abuja office and the headquarters will be built soon. We have our court in Enugu. Ibadan and Kano offices will also be commissioned soon. We have on-going projects in Jos, Maiduguri and Calabar which we hope that before the end of the year they will be ready for commission. So when you talk of how it has been, you have to look at how it was before I took over and how it has been since I took over. When I took over, there were few graduates in the court. Today, we have sufficient number of them, who are capable to man their various professions and disciplines. Trainingand re-training are done by the National Judicial Institute (NJI) through seminars, workshops and courses. We have dozens of our staff who have travelled abroad for various courses. We believe in capacity building and we have been getting the support from various countries, and it has been wonderful. Before now the court could not make enforceable orders because there were no powers like that of the high court. But under the act the court has all the powers of the high court.

I was so happy but not too happy. I was a judge of about five and a half years old before the appointment. About 19 of us applied for the post. The then Chief Justice, I was then told later, sent the 19 names to the then president, telling him he had liberty to appoint any of us. The president later appoint me.

I never knew how and why he appointed me. But I got to learn about this later when I paid a courtesy call on him (Obasanjo). The president said when the list came to him he sent it to the appropriate security agencies who later came up with my name. I became happier when I heard from the president himself that he appointed me based on merit. I told him that since he said he had confidence in me, that I was going to do my best. I thank God that within six years we were able to go this far. That was why on December 22, 2008, when President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua conferred a national honour on me as an Officer of the Order of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (OFR) for offering service to Nigeria, I became happier. It means that within a shortest period the nation has recognized my little contribution.

Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown. Here you do adjudicative, administrative and sometimes quasi-administrative jobs. Now you have so many things to do. You are answerable also to higher authorities. It’s a good thing, tough but interesting. Cases

When I came I met a back-log of cases because when the former president die, for like two years, no president was appointed. Under the old law, the court could not sit without the president and people were filing cases. At the end of the day, I met about 300-400 cases pending. Out of those we met, we have been able to dispose 250-280. But the more you dispose these cases, the more they file in new ones. So right now, I think we have 200-250 cases throughout the country. Before I came in we had about cases of 15 to 20 years pending. Now I don’t think we have any case that is above one year old. You cannot compare the pace of work at the NIC to those at the High Court. In the High Court, a single judge sits to determine the cases according to his knowledge and understanding. In our case, we sit in a panel of three. We go round the country attending to cases from one place to the other.

Now things have changed, panels can now sit simultaneously. Before people did not have faith in it, because they say it was an arbitration and it lacked all the powers of a proper court. After the act, it is now given the powers to act as a real court. People are more confident now. We now have to sensitize the people and the business community about the changes. It is not the volume of cases that determines if a court is good but the way justice is given that is what matters. Is the court able to achieve the aims and aspirations of the founding fathers, that is to mellow down the industrial disputes? There is no way that there would be no industrial disputes. Once there is employer, employee relationship, there will be industrial disputes. When we say industrial court, it is a court for industry, a court for workplace disputes.

Section 10 of the National Industrial Court Act 2006 says the court can have power and jurisdiction to enforce any judgment throughout the federation. That the court can punish for contempt of court if the judgment of the court is disobeyed. So, the court has all the powers of the high court to enforce judgment and the judgment of the court is different from that of the high court. It is just like that of the Federal High Court because is enforceable throughout the whole federation. In the high court, if you obtain a judgment in stage one and you want to enforce it in stage two, you must register that judgment before that high court of that state before it can be enforced. But in the NIC, our court is one throughout the federation and judgment can be enforced throughout the federation. We don’t have the problem of enforcement of judgment. We have the power to force you to obey the judgment of the court. These rules have been made. I didn’t just sit down to make these rules. I called on eminent Nigerians, late Justice Olajide Olateru, former Justice of the Supreme Court, was the chairman. After about three to six months deliberations, they submitted a paper to me what the rules should look like. I sent it to the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Idris Kutigi, he went through and wrote back to me that the rules were okay. I then forwarded these rules to the Federal Government and on August 1, 2007, they became the rules of the court.

When you say landmark cases, to any judge, any case you have handled is a landmark case otherwise you send out a wrong signal that some cases are more important than others. We have handled a lot of cases that are landmark cases but it is not the best to say one is important than the other.

If you are talking about NIC, I see it as my baby. I see it as an institution I should devote all my passion into. I see NIC as one of those things that can be my contribution to my fatherland, because one day we must die. I want to be remembered as somebody who has served this country. I met a Nigerian state that I was not happy with and by the grace of God today we are where we are.

In all human endeavours, you have frustration. For example, if you expect a particular project to be completed within a certain period and it is not done, due to the fault from another, you are frustrated. It is not everything we take to the NJC that is approved. You don’t expect to get 100 per cent. But so far, 90 per cent, I think we are okay. Relationship with other courts

We have hierarchy of courts in Nigeria, and there is a jurisprudence that courts stand in hierarchy. It is not debatable that the Supreme Court is the apex court in Nigeria and whatever decision handled down by the Supreme Court is final as far as the territorial boundary of Nigeria is concern on any matter. It is followed by the Court of Appeal, whose decision is binding on any court below the Court of Appeal. There is the Federal High Court which has jurisdiction throughout the federation based on Section 251 of 1999 Constitution. There is the high court of the FCT, which has jurisdiction within the FCT. There is the Court of Appeal of the FCT, and there is the Customary Court of Appeal of the FCT and we have the National Industrial Court which is not at par with the Supreme Court, it is not at par with the Court of Appeal. With the Federal High Court and the FCT high court we have coordinate status, but different jurisdiction. I mean, our decisions are not subject of review by any high court. No high court can supervise the decisions of the NIC. Section 3 of the NIC Act stipulates the procedure of appointing judges to this court. Section 4 deals with the rankings. The president of the court shall rank at par, using the word equal with the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court or the Chief Judge of the High Court of the FCT. So, on those areas we don’t have any controversy. On issue of salaries, we earn the same salary and allowances, the Chief Judge of the High Court, the Chief Judge of the FCT, the President of the NIC, the Grand Ghadi of the Sharia Court of the FCT and the President of the Customary Court of the FCT. Let me say one thing, labour matters are economic matters. For instance, if a case should start from the high court today and gets to the Court of Appeal, once it gets to the appeal court, it must get to the Supreme Court by law, by Section 240, 243, 246 of the Constitution. If labour matters are allowed to be so over-prolonged, the economy will collapse. That is in the thinking of the lawmakers. They believe they should not allow the running of the country to be grounded and they now said there are some cases that there shall be no appeal. Whereas there are some, based on fundamental rights, you can go to appeal. And coming with the relationship with other courts, particularly the Federal High Court, in our law, there are some cases where you think you don’t have jurisdiction, you can send it to these courts, and if those courts also feel they don’t have jurisdiction on a particular matter, they can also send it to you. If both say they don’t have jurisdiction over a matter, they send it to Court of Appeal and the Court of Appeal will now direct which of the two courts have jurisdiction. So, we work together because the judiciary is the third arm of government. So, either at the state or federal level, we are the same family.

Definitely. There are cases in our law report, where we might have decided and even the Court of Appeal will say no you are wrong. That is why we have hierarchy of courts. If there are no such things there will be no development in the law, there will be no jurisprudence. And we want to develop the labour jurisprudence in the country, so that those who are ready for real business can come.