Walter Onnoghen, the chief justice of Nigeria, on Wednesday, April 25, 2018, said that ongoing reform will ensure that all judgments and decisions of the Supreme Court are uploaded on the website within seven days of delivery.
Onnoghen said that part of the reform is meant to address the poor public perception of the judiciary which is a grave concern that requires special effort to correct. The CJN disclosed this during the launching of “Apex Quarterly Magazine” in Abuja.
He reiterated the urgent need to improve public perception on the Judiciary. He assured that the ongoing reform will avail opportunities to tell the World the true state of things in the Judiciary.
Justice Onnoghen also said that part of the reform entail the reconstitution of the Court’s Website Management Committee, which has been given a directive to ensure, among other things, “that Chamber’s Sitting are uploaded on the Site not later than 24 hours after every sitting on Wednesdays.”
The Website, he added is being redesigned to make it compatible with both desktops and handheld devices. Justice Onnoghen said that he has also instructed the Chief Registrar of the Court to ensure that Court’s Practice Directions are regularly uploaded and updated while the bio-data of Justices of the Supreme Court and the Cause List should be regularly updated.
The CJN said that given the spate of unsavoury comments on the National Judicial Council in particular and the Judiciary in general, “a more holistic approach to information management will be adopted with a superstructure of responsibilities and hierarchy with a view to getting the current media departments in the Judiciary to function optimally.”
He said “the Information Department of the Council will, therefore, be restructured to be more proactive so as to, from time to time, project the Council and Judiciary before the public through the media and to assuage the negative and damaging perception” He said cautiously opening up the Judiciary to the public will help to change the wrong perception people have of the activities of the Courts.
He said that where people are well informed, incidents of rumours, fake news, false allegations, petitions, among others, are reduced.
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