Women in the Nigerian judiciary: considerable headway or organised progress?

ABSTRACT

Women have made considerable progress in terms of their entrance into the legal profession, such that they are advancing towards parity with men on the High Court benches in Nigeria. This study is a product of qualitative empirical data gathered from interviews with judges and information gleaned from government records and personal files of judges in the Archives of the judiciaries in Mid-Western Nigeria. It identifies reasons for the increase in the number of women on the High Court Bench in the area. Women entering the legal professions in Nigeria from the 1930s opted for a career in government legal service and the Magistracy with less financial remuneration but regular work hours, than in private legal practice that provides higher remunerations and irregular work hours. Findings reveal that the number of women judges increased when it became fairly established to tunnel 90% of appointments to the High Court from these channels. The preliminary conclusion therefore, is that, although women lawyers have made considerable headway as High Court judges, the increase in their numbers on the High Court bench was not as a result of any organised policy to increase the number of women judges in Nigeria.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 As soon as the British formally established a colony in Lagos in 1861, they found it necessary to introduce the English law and legal institutions for the purpose of administering the colony. This led to the establishment of various types of courts in Nigeria. (For more information about the introduction of British system of courts in Nigeria, see Adewoye, 1969, pp. 51–52; 1970).

2 Up to 1886, the British West African colonies were not regarded as separate entities in official circles. Lagos was, at first, part of the General Administration centred in Sierra Leone and later on, from 1874, it was administered as part of the Gold Coast Colony. The professional activities of lawyers spread beyond the colony of Lagos, to these areas.

3 Initially, the area was part of the Western Region until it was excised and made an independent region, see Vickers (2000).

4 Nigeria has a pluralistic legal system with common law, customary law and Islamic law as the major legal traditions in the country. Appeals from the lower Customary courts and lower Sharia courts lay in the High Court, the Customary Court of Appeal or in the Sharia Court of Appeal.

5 Interviews conducted with Hon Justice Omage (Rtd), Benin City, 29/05/2017 and Bar P. D. Agidigbi, Benin City, 14/06/2017. Also, it was the case in Nigeria at the time that without Nigerian citizenship, one had no professional future in the Public Service (Oguntoye, 2008, p. 99). The constitution made provisions for aliens married to Nigerians to acquire Nigerian citizenship after meeting certain requirements one of which was the renunciation of previous citizenship status (The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1960, Chapter 11, Section 8, Sub-section 2–3; The Nigerian Citizenship Act of 1960; for an explanation of conditions see Okoli, 1990, pp. 27–28).

6 Gleaned from the Public Service Staff List in Delta & Edo State High Court Archives.

7 Women also participated in the National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) under which graduates of universities and polytechnics were required to undergo a compulsory one year national service outside their state of origin was established in 1973 to foster national integration. The scheme, which is still operative, is meant to transcend political, social, state and ethnic loyalties.