Olukayode Ariwoola Retires As Chief Justice, Nigerians Await Replacement

Justice Olukayode Ariwoola on Thursday, 22nd August, 2024, retired as the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN).

The Eaglesforesight reports Ariwoola retired upon attaining the mandatory retirement age of 70.

Speaking during a valedictory session held in his honour at the Supreme Court in Abuja on Thursday, Justice Ariwoola, said there are too many cases at the Supreme Court and called for measures to be taken to ensure some cases terminate at the appeal court and not the apex court.

He lamented a situation where litigants and lawyers are forced to wait for several years to have their cases decided.

The jurist also stressed the need for the employment of more judicial officers to adjudicate on all matters timeously.

Justice Ariwoola was born on 22 August 1954. On 22 November 2011, he was elevated to the bench of the Supreme Court and was appointed substantive Chief Justice of Nigeria on 27 June 2022.

Justice Ariwoola was formally confirmed as the CJN by the Nigerian Senate on 21 September 2022.

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Prior to his retirement, the National Judicial Council (NJC) recommended Justice Kudirat Motonmori Kekere-Ekun as the new Chief Justice Of Nigeria (CJN) to take over from Justice Olukayode Ariwoola.

Naija News reports Kekere-Ekun was recommended to President Bola Tinubu for appointment as the new CJN at the 106th meeting of the NJC, held on August 14 and 15 and presided over by Ariwoola.

The Council also recommended 27 candidates for appointment as judges of state courts and a candidate for appointment as Kadi of the Sharia Court of the FCT, Abuja, to their various governors and the President.

These developments were confirmed by the spokesman for the NJC, Soji Oye, in a statement last week Thursday.

Should Justice Kekere-Ekun take over as the new CJN as expected after Ariwoola’s retirement, she would become the second female justice in Nigeria to hold the exalted position after Mariam Aloma Mukhtar, who was CJN between July 2012 and November 2014.

The 66-year-old Kekere-Ekun is the most senior justice of the Supreme Court after Ariwoola, and is favoured to clinch the position.