News Update

The swearing-in of Justice Kayode Oyewole as a Justice of the Supreme Court has brought the apex court to its full constitutional complement, the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, has said.

Justice Oyewole was sworn in on Wednesday at the Supreme Court, Abuja.

Speaking at the event, Kekere-Ekun described Oyewole’s elevation as a significant milestone.

“A full court enhances our capacity to sit in robust panels and manage our docket more efficiently.

“It will ensure that the business of the nation’s apex court proceeds with renewed vigour and dispatch. It enriches intellectual diversity and reinforces the stability of our jurisprudence.

“For a court whose pronouncements shape the legal destiny of the nation, numerical completeness is structurally significant to the effective discharge of our constitutional mandate,” she said.

The CJN reaffirmed the Supreme Court’s commitment to strengthening public confidence in the administration of justice.

Speaking at the ceremony, Kekere-Ekun said that while the court’s traditions are rich and its responsibilities weighty, its enduring strength rests on disciplined scholarship, ethical fidelity, and collective wisdom.

She charged Oyewole to contribute meaningfully to the coherence of the court’s jurisprudence and the clarity of constitutional interpretation, noting that his elevation reflected the confidence reposed in him by relevant institutions and, by extension, the Nigerian people.

“The oaths Your Lordship has taken represent a covenant, binding in conscience and in law,” she said.

“It demands moral courage when decisions are unpopular, restraint when passions run high, and steadfastness when pressures, subtle or overt, seek to intrude upon judicial independence.

“At this level of adjudication, scrutiny is intense and commentary often instantaneous. Your compass must remain fixed upon the Constitution and the law,” she said.

The CJN reminded the new justice that he was required to decide cases according to law and conscience, free from fear, favour, affection, or ill-will.

She emphasised the importance of principled disagreement where necessary.

“Where Your Lordship’s considered conviction differs from that of your brother justices, Your Lordship must have the courage to dissent with courtesy and precision,” she said, adding that a principled dissent expressed with intellectual honesty often becomes the seed of future doctrinal growth rather than a fracture of unity.

She stressed that the judgments of the Supreme Court extend beyond the parties before it and speak to generations yet unborn.

“The authority of this court rests not on force, but on the moral weight of its reasoning, the discipline of its processes and the integrity of those privileged to serve on its bench.

“At this level, the judicial function transcends the resolution of disputes. It demands stewardship, careful guardianship of precedent, principled development of the law, and unwavering allegiance to constitutional supremacy.

“A justice of this court must possess the courage to affirm settled doctrine where stability demands it, and the wisdom to refine it where justice and constitutional fidelity so require,” she said.