STATUS OF CUSTOMARY LAWS, THE CUSTOMARY COURT OF APPEAL AND THE HIGH COURT: A REPETITION OF HISTORY?
Abstract
For too long, the customary law otherwise acknowledged as the indigenous laws of the peoples of Nigeria prior to the intrusion of the colonial regimes has suffered subjugation and stultification of both the colonialist and their succeeding neo-colonialists. It would appear that the first bold attempt to recognise the need to develop and sustain the growth of the indigenous laws was the provisions enshrined in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1979 but now reproduced in the 1999 Constitution which repealed it. Section 280 to 284 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) provides for the establishment of the Customary Court of Appeal (CCA) for each state in Nigeria. Not all states have complied with the provision of the Constitution because by the sections it is not mandatory for the state to establish one. Section 280(1) provides thus: “There shall be for any State that requires it a Customary Court of Appeal for that State.” It therefore appears that right from the outset of the seeming recognition of the need to provide a sustainable development of the laws through some institutions had created a loophole to thwart the same objective it set out to achieve. The weaknesses in the provisions have further set up obstacles for the sustainability of the Customary Court of Appeal of a state. In similar vein, the provisions appear to have left a lacuna in the prospect of the President of the Court becoming the Chief Judge of the state even when the qualifications of both are the same. This paper discusses the constitutional objective of the CCA; the problematic issues revolving around the possible growth and sustainability of customary laws therefrom; and the relationship between the CCA and the High Court as a similitude of the English legal history
Mr. Chinaka Emmanuel