The Nation Newspaper

Category: Law

  • Media should create awareness on Criminal Justice Act – Lawyer

    A call has gone out to media practitioners to help create awareness on the importance of the Administration Criminal Justice Act (ACJA).

    This call was made by Mrs Eseosa Okuku, a fellow of the National Judicial Institute (NJI)  at the closing ceremony of a two-day workshop organised by the National Association of Judiciary Correspondents (NAJUC) in Abuja on Tuesday.

    The workshop was organised by the National Judicial Institute with the theme: “Empowering Judicial Correspondents for Effective and Efficient Reportage’’.

    Okuku, who spoke on Understanding the Administration of Criminal Justice Acts, described the media as intermediaries between the judiciary and the public.

    “The media has a very important role to play in creating awareness and sensitising members of the public on the reforms to the Criminal Justice System by the Act.

    “The ACJA presents an excellent opportunity to entrench standard principles and international best practices into the criminal justice administration.

    “The states are therefore encouraged to key into the innovations of the Act and enact their own Administration of Criminal Justice Laws at the states level using the ACJA as a model,’’ she said.

    She said that the ACJA was modelled after the administration of criminal justice law of Lagos State and commended Ekiti and Ondo who had already passed their own Administration of Criminal Justice Law.

    Okuku called on states such as Kaduna, Cross River and Anambra who were in the process of passing their own to do so on time.

    Mr Christopher Ogundare, another research fellow, NJI, called on journalists to be wary of defamation in their reportage.

    According to Ogundare, defamation of one’s character is a serious crime under the law which judicial correspondents must guard against in every of their report.

    He called on journalists to imbibe the act of saying the truth, balancing and being objective in every report they pushed out for the consumption of the general public.

    “The press should continue to be free and unfettered but this freedom must be juxtaposed with a system of effective self-regulation.

    “Perhaps the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) or Guild of Editors could consider setting up an ethics committee and code of conduct to ensure that uniform standard are maintained and rights are not unduly infringed with falsehoods.

    “Otherwise, our press will falter in its duty to publish if this is not freely done without “fear or favour’’.

    Papers presented at the workshop included Techniques of Reporting Court Proceedings, Code of Ethics for Nigeria journalists, the Media and Law of defamation.

  • ACJA: So far… not so good

    ACJA: So far… not so good

    More than one year after it came into being, the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA), which is designed to eliminate delays in trials, seems not to be serving its purpose. This is provoking questions on its suitability. Eric Ikhilae writes

    MANY hailed the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) as the antidote to endless trials. But over a year after its enactment, justice is still not being served speedily.

    The Act, which has some innovative provisions, aimed mainly at ensuring speedy criminal trial, became effective in May, last year, shortly after it was assented to by former President Goodluck Jonathan.

     

    Key provisions

     

    The ACJA has key provisions , such as those contained in Sections 15(4), 306, 376 and 396, aimed mainly at speeding up criminal trials.

    Section 15 (4) provides for electronic recording (including video) of a suspect’s confessional statement. This is intended to eliminate time wasted by the court in conducting trial-within-trial, where the voluntariness of such statement becomes an issue.

    Section 306 is directed at eliminating delays often occasioned by interlocutory appeals. It states: “An application for stay of proceedings in respect of a criminal matter before the court shall not be entertained.”

    Section 376 stipulates the time limit for the issuance of legal advice by the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP). This is aimed at eliminating the delay caused by the inability/failure of the DPP or the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) to issue such opinion on time.

    Section 396 dictates how proceedings should be conducted from inception to conclusion, thereby eliminating every opportunity for delays. It provides, among others, time for raising certain objections, the conduct of day-to-day trial (provides alternative where not applicable) and the number of adjournments allowed within the life of a case.

     

    ACJA, one year after

     

    More than a year after the introduction of the Act, there is still concern that the ailment it was meant to cure persists.

    Many reasons, observers say, account for this. Despite the innovative enactments in the ACJA, proceedings in criminal cases, particularly those involving high-profile individuals, progress at snail speed.

    Observers argue that, beyond the fact that the court system is managed by humans, and as such perfection cannot be expected, the judicial system is yet to be fully weaned from the effect of external manipulations.

    An example is the trial of the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, before the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) on charges of false assets declaration. Although Saraki took his plea on September 22, last year, the prosecution has been unable to move beyond calling its first witness.

    After months of delay, with Saraki challenging almost every step taken by the tribunal, including its jurisdiction and composition, trial eventually commenced on April 5, this year, with the calling of the first prosecution witness, Michael Wetkas.

    The prosecution wasted no time as Wetkas concluded his evidence-in-chief on April 18 (within three adjournments). But it took the defence 14 adjournments, spanning over seven months, to cross-examine the first prosecution witness.

    The defence team, comprising senior lawyers such as Kanu Agabi (SAN), Joseph Daudu (SAN), Paul Erokoro (SAN), Paul Usoro (SAN), Mahmud Magaji (SAN), among others, cross-examined Wetkas between April 18 and November 8, this year.

    When the defence announced its conclusion of what the prosecution lawyer, Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), described it as the “longest cross-examination in the history of the nation’s criminal jurisprudence.” The tribunal also stunned all when it adjourned further proceedings from November 8 to January 11, next year.

    Those who have followed proceedings in the Saraki case have argued that, beyond the fact that the defence had exploited all delay tricks in the books to their advantage, the tribunal members had not also held their ground in preventing delays.

    Observers argue that beside the cross-examination that took such a long time, the tribunal, either wittingly or otherwise, contributed to the delay when it, on many occasions, took arguments on interlocutory applications and made rulings on the mere excuse that such applications touched on its jurisdiction.

     

    Other reasons for delay

     

    Another reason for delay is the failure of the investigators to comply with the provision of the Act requiring video recording of the confessional statement of a defendant. In most instances, investigators do not comply or simply engage in manipulating such procedures.

    This development still accounts for why courts are still subjected to the time-wasting rigour of conducting trial-within-trial.

    The trial of former Head of Service of the Federation (HOS) Stephen Oransanye, Osarenkhoe Afe and some firms before Justice Gabriel Kolawole of the Federal High Court in Abuja over an alleged N1.2 billion fraud, has been stalled since May this year.

    Proceedings were stalled when the defence opposed an attempt by the prosecution to tender, through its first witness, a confessional statement purportedly made by Afe.

    Afe’s lawyer Oluwole Aladedoye argued that the statement was obtained by force, a claim the prosecution denied, prompting the trial judge to order a trial-within-trial, which is yet to be concluded.

    Delay also arises when the prosecution is not co-ordinated. Where the prosecution is not diligent in its duties, delay occurs in most instances. A good example of this is the trial of former Abia State Governorz Orji Uzor Kalu, his ex-aide, Jones Udeogo and the former governor’s company, Slok Nigeria Limited.

    They were initially arraigned before a Federal High Court in Abuja in 2007. They took advantage of the existing situation then and stalled proceedings, appealing up to the Supreme Court on the competence of the charge.

    Earlier this year, the Supreme Court dismissed their appeals and ordered them to submit themselves for trial. They were re-arraigned on September 27, before another judge of the Federal High Court, Abuja, Justice Anwuri Chikere, following the retirement of the earlier judge, Justice Adamu Bello.

    The new judge granted them bail and adjourned till December 6 for the commencement of trial. However, in mid-October, the prosecuting agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), applied for the transfer of the case to the Lagos Division of the Federal High Court.

    They were re-arraigned before Justice Mohammed Idris of the Federal High Court, Lagos on October 31, thereby causing the case to start afresh in Lagos.

    The apparent conflict of interests among the AGF, the EFCC and the Department of State Services (DSS) has also contributed, in no small measure, to delays in the many criminal cases pending in court.

    Some of the cases affected by the perceived conflict among these agencies of government include the ones involving former National Security Adviser (NSA) Sambo Dasuki, member of the Presidential Committee investigating the procurement of arms and equipment in the Armed Forces Air Commodore Umar Mohammed and former Imo State Governor Ikedi Ohakim.

    Dasuki is facing three charges, marked: FHC/ABJ/CR/319/2015, FCT/HC/CR/43/2015 and FCT/HC/CR/42/2015. In FHC/ABJ/CR/319/2015, he is charged with money laundering and illegal possession of firearms.

    He is charged with former Director of Finance, office of the NSA, Shuaibu Salisu; a former Executive Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Aminu Baba-Kusa, and his two companies –  Acacia Holding Limited, and Reliance Referral Hospital Limited, in FCT/HC/CR/42/2015,  for allegedly diverting public funds running into billions of naira.

    Dasuki is also charged with the ex-Minister of State for Finance, Bashir Yuguda, a former Governor of Sokoto State, Attahiru Bafarawa, his son, Sagir Bafarawa and their company, Dalhatu Investment Limited for allegedly stealing about N9.2 billion from the office of the NSA, in FCT/HC/CR/43/2015.

    The ex-NSA was first arraigned before Justice Adeniyi Ademola of the Federal High Court, Abuja on charge marked: FHC/ABJ/CR/319/2015 on September 1, 2015.

    He and others were consequently arraigned on December 14 and 15, 2015 in relation to other charges (before Justices Hussein Baba Yusuf and Peter Affen of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja).

    Of the three cases against Dasuki, the prosecution has only been able to commence trial in the case before Justice Ademola of the Federal High Court. Only one witness has testified in the case. He is an operative of the  DSS, Samuel Ogbu. He started his testimony on May 18 and concluded on May 19 after the defence cross examined him.

    Proceedings in that case have now been halted with the invasion of Justice Ademola’s house and his arrest by the DSS.

    It has been difficult for the prosecution to commence trial in the other two cases before the High Court of the FCT, owing to series of applications by the defence. The applications mainly challenged the alleged refusal by the DSS to release Dasuki from its custody, having been granted bail by all the courts.

    Instances also abound where the DSS, in whose custody Dasuki is kept, simply failed to produce him in court, without the prior knowledge of the prosecution lawyer engaged by the EFCC. The court has had to adjourn in such instances owing to the DSS inability to produce the defendant in court.

    Progress has also been impeded in the case involving Mohammed owing mainly to the DSS refusal to comply with court orders, granting him bail and directing his transfer to prison custody.

    On November 28, this year, the second judge handling the case, Justice John Tsoho of the Federal High Court, Abuja declined the request by the state to commence trial in the case. The judge’s decision was informed by his realisation that the prosecution has refused to comply with his earlier order granting bail to the defendant

    What has gradually become a habit of indiscretion on the part of the DSS has also stalled proceedings in the trail of Ohakim. He was arraigned on July 8, 2015 on a three-count charge of money laundering, to which he pleaded not guilty.

    The prosecution closed its case on May 5, 2016 after calling six witnesses. Rather than open his defence, Ohakim chose to make a no-case submission and, in a ruling on June 30, the trial judge dismissed Ohakim’s no-case submission and ordered him to enter defence.

    But before October 10, 2016 date fixed for Ohakim to open his defence, the DSS stormed Justice Ademola’s home and arrested him. The case may soon be reassigned to another judge for it to commence afresh.

    However, those who argued that it is impossible to fully implement the provisions of the Act under the current regime of court management, pointed to the provision that criminal trials are conducted on day-to-day basis, and are impossible where the same judge is saddled with both criminal and civil cases.

    They argued that even where the judge was diligent and willing to ensure swift conclusion of the criminal cases, the other cases would suffer where he devoted too much time to criminal trials.

    They also noted that provisions in Section 396(4) and (5), which say that the time between one adjournment to another should not exceed 14 days and that where parties exhaust their five adjournments each, the interval should not be more than five days, have also not been practicable.

    This, they attributed to the fact that aside time allocated for the court’s vacations, judges are sometimes unable to attend courts, either because they are away attending seminars/ workshops or they are sitting outside their current jurisdictions.

    This in in line with with the provision that allows elevated or transferred judge to conclude his/her part-heard cases to prevent situations where such cases start afresh

    Examples are the trials of former Chief of Air Staff, Alex Badeh and ex-spokesman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Olisa Metuh, before Justice Okon Abang. Although proceedings have progressed appreciably, the cases have nonetheless, experienced some unavoidable delays caused mainly by some of these factors.

     

    Experts speak

     

    Law experts have also expressed concern over why the nation’s Judiciary appears reluctant to address its core malaise of delay in criminal trials by embracing, and wholeheartedly applying the many beautiful provisions of the ACJA, more than a year after its introduction.

    The latest of such concerns was expressed by the Executive Secretary of the Presidential Committee against Corruption (PACAC), Prof Bolaji Owasanoye, who blamed the persistent delay in criminal trials on the court. He argued that where judges strictly comply with ACJA, high profile cases would no longer sit the court’s docket for years.

    Owasanoye said: “If you do a thorough analysis of all the high profile cases that are hanging in court, they are not hanging because investigation was poor. It is because the suspects are manipulating the court system.

    “If you accuse me of corruption and I have a good defence, why should I want the case to go on for 10 years? I should be the one insisting on no adjournment. I would want my case quickly concluded so I can clear my name, but that’s not what you get.

    “So, while there’s need for thorough investigation, we should understand that the reason corruption fight is slow is because of the high tolerance of the courts of the shenanigans of lawyers.

    “Once the judges stamp their foot and say: ‘I will not entertain an adjournment, this case must proceed,’ you will see changes. We’ve seen those situations in this country before. We need to get the narrative right,” Owasanoye said.

    A retired judge, Justice Babasola Ogunade, shared the blame among three distinct players within the system – the prosecutor (who he said must be thorough), the defence lawyer (who mostly rely on delay tactics) and the judge (who, he said must be firm).

    Justice Ogunade, who retired from the Ogun State Judiciary said the judge’s responsibility is to decide any case brought before him/her by applying the laws and rules.

    “As a judge, I work by the rules. I work by the law. You bring a matter before me, you are the prosecutor. You are the one, who will tell me that this one that I have brought before you, the law enjoined me to do this and that to him/her. And that is what I brought before you. He has applied to you, do what you have to do.

    “But, it takes two to tango. The criminal, who has a lawyer, comes and cooks up something; whether right or wrong, he might say,’ my lord, you don’t have jurisdiction to deal with this matter.’

    “The moment he raises jurisdiction, he forgets the facts of the case. We deal with the issue of jurisdiction. At the end of it, I say I have jurisdiction to deal with the matter. He says, ‘I am going on appeal.’ You have no right to say he shouldn’t go on appeal.

    “I was speaking with a retired justice of the Supreme Court not too long ago. And I said, why are we having so much congestion in the Supreme Court; that Supreme Court is now like the High Courts, having so many cases? He said what they are facing there are all these interlocutory appeals.

    “The ACJL Act is supposed to take care of that, but lawyers will go from the High Court to the Appeal Court and to the Supreme Court. I can tell you this, it takes a bit of courage to do what you must do. A lawyer comes to you and you find that this one is being mischievous, you look at the law.

    “If his argument is not right, you overrule him there and then. Let him go on appeal if he likes. They know me by the number of cases that I have done. But these days, you don’t have it because there is too much intimidation all over the place,” Justice Ogunade said.

    The Executive Director of the Centre for Justice and Social Equity (CJSE), Dr. Charles Apoh, argued that the retention of the current arrangement in the management of the court system will continue to encourage delay in most cases, particularly criminal trials.

    He argued that it was wrong for the country to retain a system where a judge is allowed to handle various types of cases, when he/she should have been encouraged to specialise in certain areas of law.

    “Why would you assign criminal, civil, business and election matters to a single judge? This practice has its many drawbacks. Aside, the judge will not have the opportunity to specialise, he/she can never be thorough.

    “We should emulate what is done in other jurisdictions. If we cannot immediately amend the Constitution to create special courts for certain criminal cases, we can work, through the various court heads, to designate some judges to handle only criminal cases, while others are assigned to election or business related matters.

    “I also think we should begin to look towards providing a time frame for the conduct of criminal cases. We cannot allow people to continue to explore the weakness of the system. Look at the Saraki’s case before the CCT, where he spent over seven months cross-examining a witness.

    “That is absurd. It should not be tolerated under any guise of fair hearing.  The tribunal members ought to be sanctioned for, on their own, encouraging delays and condoning all manners of tricks,” Apoh said.

  • How to make ADR work, by Solanke, others

    How to make ADR work, by Solanke, others

    Legal experts have identified ways to make alternative dispute resolution (ADR) more effective.

    First woman Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) Chief Folake Solanke said ADR had come to stay in Nigeria.

    She said for ADR to be effective, technicalities should not be permitted in arbitration, a form of ADR.

    “People must be trained to know what arbitration is all about. Non-legal practitioners must be conversant with laws regulating arbitration,” she said.

    She spoke in Lagos at the presentation of the book: Commercial Arbitration Law and Practice in Nigeria through the Cases, written by Mrs. Adedoyin Rhodes-Vivour and published by LexisNexis, South Africa.

    Justice Chima Nweze of the Supreme Court and a distinguished Professor of Law said the book supplies the missing link in arbitration literature “as there has been no major work devoted entirely to cases and materials on arbitration.”

    Chief Judge of Lagos State, Justice Olufunmilayo Atilade, represented by Justice Joseph Oyefeso, said the exponential growth of trade and investment, coupled with the drive to attract direct foreign investment, has made it more imperative for Nigeria to develop and sustain viable dispute resolution mechanisms to resolve conflicts when they do arise.

    “I am confident that this book will help to stem the tide of unnecessary challenges to awards by disgruntled parties who do not seem to understand the arbitration process,” she said.

    Ogun State Attorney-General Dr. Olumide Ayeni, who represented Governor Ibikunle Amosun, praised the author and reiterated the role of arbitration in economic development

    Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) President Abubakar Mahmoud (SAN), represented by Dr. K. U. K. Ekwueme, said the book was a significant contribution to knowledge on arbitration.

    “The book does not recycle the existing literature on arbitration; but it is an original book, and an intellectual ritual, which adopts a distinctively distinguishing methodology, which is case review, widely regarded as the best way of following legal developments,” he said.

    A Life Bencher, Mrs Hairat Balogun, stressed that arbitration was not only for lawyers, and that practitioners could be accountants, architects, engineers, doctors and those in the finance and insurance industry. The book, she said, fills a void in the legal literature on arbitration.

    Former Attorney-General of the Federation Chief Bayo Ojo (SAN) said: “For the first time, a legal text on arbitration in Nigeria considered arbitration law and practice through the prism of cases.”

    Mr. Mike Igbokwe (SAN) urged practitioners to share their knowledge through books. He stated that the development of arbitration in Nigeria is progressive and books of this nature will assist Nigeria in being recognised as a seat of arbitration in Africa and the world.

    Nigerian Shippers’ Council Executive Secretary, Mr. Hassan Bello, a lawyer, urged maritime operators to utilise alternative dispute resolution for quick and fast resolution of disputes.

    On what motivated her to write the book, Mrs. Rhodes-Vivour said: “It was my desire to make available a one stop reference material for all seeking knowledge on the state of Nigerian arbitration law and its statutes as interpreted by the court.”

  • ‘Remove legal impediments to doing business’

    ‘Remove legal impediments to doing business’

    A Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Law, Media and Social Justice Development Initiative (LMSJDI), has called for the removal of legal impediments for ease of doing business.

    At a workshop in Abuja, it said more investiment would come to Nigeria if that step is taken.

    A professor of law, Paul Idornigie (SAN), in the lead paper at the workshop with the theme:  Improving the laws and regulations hampering ease of doing business in Nigeria, said since the inception of the Doing Business’ Report in 2005 (11 years running), Nigeria had barely made any significant move up the rungs of the ratings.

    Idornigie said: “Nigeria, rich in human and natural resources, is the leading economy in Africa, but unfortunately this is where the success story ends. In almost all other significant sectors, Nigeria has done very badly.

    “To move forward, however, we must improve on all the indicators used by the World Economic Forum and the World Bank’s Doing Business Report.”

    He said the Doing Business Report demonstrates how government policies and regulations affect businesses.

    Idornigie, head of Commercial Law department at the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (NIALS), noted that economies around the world have taken steps to support business start-ups and promote investments.

    “These countries, even within Africa, have streamlined their business procedures by setting up one-stop shop, making procedures simpler or faster by introducing technology and reducing or eliminating minimum capital requirements,” he said.

    According to him, many have undertaken business registration reforms in stages—and they often are part of a larger regulatory reform programme.

    “Among the benefits have been greater firm satisfaction and savings, more registered businesses, financial resources and job opportunities,” he added.

    LMSJDI President, Charles Odenigbo, made a case for sound business laws and a thriving private sector.

    He said: “Sound laws and business regulations are important for a thriving private sector- and a thriving private sector is important for the overall development of any nation. Where regulation is burdensome and competition limited, success tends to depend on whom one knows (man-know-man) in Nigeria.

    “Where regulation is transparent, efficient and implemented in a simple way, it becomes easier for aspiring entrepreneurs and businesses to compete on equal footing and to innovate and expand,” the media lawyer said.

    At the workshop, Lagos and Kano States were identified as Nigeria’s largest business cities; making them relevant study locations for business practices, processes and regulations such as urban planning laws, land registry laws, environmental laws, state taxes, and local government taxes.

    Participants noted that other than the Land Use Act, Companies and Allied Matters Act, Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission Act, Value Added Tax, and Stamp Duties Act and a few others, there were very few federal laws that impacted significantly on ease of doing business in Nigeria.

    It was suggested that regulations in these states must be improved upon if Nigeria was to improve its ‘Ease of Doing Business ranking’.

    Some recommendations from speakers, panelists and participants include, transparency of government procurement processes; business competitiveness in solving both international macroeconomic challenges; transparency of government procurement; transparent regulatory process; accountable and truly ‘independent regulators; and most importantly, a regulatory system that provides reasonable certainty as to rules that will apply within the overall regulatory framework.

  • ‘Sustain fight against corruption in judiciary’

    ‘Sustain fight against corruption in judiciary’

    Mr. Israel Ainoko Aye-Ebene is the Managing Partner of Sterling Partnership Solicitors, a leading commercial law firm. In this interview, he speaks on the war against corruption in the judiciary and sundry issues with JOHN AUSTIN UNACHUKWU.

    Law and development have always gone together, how do you think  our laws will assist us get out of the current economic recession?

    The role of the law in enabling development cannot be overempha-sised. At the basic level, law, or the rule of law, promotes orderliness, justice and peace in society, which in turn allows people to freely engage in economic activities.   Furthermore, statutory and regulatory certainty as well as transparent judiciary are minimum conditions for creating a conducive climate for investment.  A good example is Dubai, which used the Dubai Arbitration Centre to unlock FDI into Dubai.Finally, law is the ‘infrastructure’ for development as the structure and direction of development would be contained in a body of laws.  Lagos State is a very good example of a government that is using law to drive economic development.

    How do you feel about the ongoing fight against corruption in the judiciary?

    Firstly, confidence in the judiciary is necessary for a civil society and a minimum condition for investment.  Corruption undermines such confidence and therefore, we should have zero tolerance for corruption in the judiciary of all places.  Secondly, corruption is crime and anyone engaged in corrupt act should also be prepared to face the criminal justice procedure, which includes investigation and prosecution if necessary.  However, we must take care to preserve the integrity of the judiciary while ridding it of persons who might threaten to drag it into disrepute.

    What is your suggestion on this?

    My suggestion is that once a crime is alleged against a judge, a preliminary inquiry by a panel of retired judges, law enforcement personnel and a representative of the Bar should be carried out to determine if a prima facie case has been established against the judge, meriting further investigation. If the outcome is a yes, then such a judge should be suspended from the Bench forthwith, pending the determination of the investigations.  The outcome of the investigation if unfavourable should be sufficient grounds for dismissal.  That way, we can quickly separate the individual from the institution and deal with such individual without tainting the judiciary in the process.

    People have called for the diversification of the economy to develop other sources of revenue other than oil. How do you think we can achieve this through our laws?

    The fact is that the Nigerian economy is already diversified by sector.  The challenge is (non) revenue generation from the other sectors.  In my opinion, there is too much concentration of power in the Federal Government of Nigeria, which may or may not have led to focussing excessively on petroleum as  the main foreign exchange earner.

    How do we address this?

    A number of the activities on the exclusive and legislative lists should be devolved to the sub national entities, to enable that level of government drive economic activities and development.  For example, I don’t see why the states cannot make business registrations and partnership laws.

    Which reforms would you suggest to the Acting ACJ to make our courts more efficient in justice delivery?

    We will have to wait for the Acting CJN to share his agenda with us.  Notwithstanding what his agenda might be, one would like to see improvement in the areas of funding of the judiciary, modernisation of the court system, vast improvement in the compensation and remuneration of judges and judicial officers.

    The President is asking for emergency economic powers to deal with the current economic challenges, what is your view on this?

    You cannot over emphasise the impact of confidence in the performance of any economy.  Mr. President can begin by using his bully pulpit to rally Nigerians and other well meaning persons from all over the world to the task of nation building and economic revival, not even so much as a patriotic task, but indeed, as an economic opportunity with a healthy return on investment. Afterwards, if necessary, we can deploy the emergency powers tool.  It may just be premature yet.

    The President is consulting to enable him take external loans to fix the economy. Should he take the loan?

    The rule of the thumb on borrowing is if you must, borrow to invest and not to consume.  Therefore, if the purpose of the proposed borrowing is to invest in critical infrastructure, which has the potential to unlock hidden economic assets and stimulate growth, there can’t be an issue with that.  But if it is to pay salaries and bail out state governments, that would be a mistake in my opinion.

     

  • Court rules on $249m suit January 27

    JUSTICE Mohammed Idris of the Federal High Court in Lagos will on January 27, next year, rule on whether or not he has jurisdiction to hear a $249 million suit against a company co-founded by Industry Minister Okechukwu Enelamah.

    Petroleum Zion Exploration and Production Limited is claiming that  amount for alleged breach of contract, confidentiality obligations and unlawful interference with economic interests.

    Enelamah was the African Capital Alliance Ltd’s Chief Executive Officer until his appointment as minister.

    The plaintiff claimed the company unlawfully interfered with its purchase of Afren’s stake in Oil Mining Lease (“OML”) 26, with a production potential of over 10,000 barrels of oil per day.

    PJT Partners UK Ltd, FHN 26 Ltd, Wilmington Trust (London) Ltd, Vertex Energy Ltd, Department of Petroleum Resources, and Ministry of Petroleum Resources are the other defendants.

    Five of them brought notices of preliminary objection challenging the court’s jurisdiction.

    The plaintiff said sometime in 2015, Afren PLC (a UK listed Pan- African Oil and Gas Company currently under insolvency) mandated PJT Partners (a subsidiary of Blackstone Group UK) to liquidate all its assets in Nigeria, including its 100 per cent stake in FHN26 (a special purpose vehicle of that owns a 45 per cent interest in OML 26).

    The plaintiff expressed interest in acquiring the said stake in OML 26 (the ‘Sale Asset’) and was eventually declared preferred bidder, whereupon it commenced negotiations, in good faith, and reached agreement to execute a Sale Purchase Agreement in respect of the Sale Assets (‘SPA’).

    According to Petroleum Zion, PJT Partners in handling the transaction on behalf of Afren’s administrators, breached their confidentiality obligations owed to the plaintiff, unlawfully disclosing the plaintiff’s bid price and other sensitive information to ACA (who secretly joined the bid process later) and now on the verge of concluding the transaction, leveraging the sensitive information unlawfully obtained from PJT Partners to its advantage.

    The plaintiff contended that PJT Partners disclosed the sensitive informations it gathered from it (Petroleum Zion) including renegotiated terms to ACA, which made it easy for ACA to want to close the transaction.

    Among others, the plaintiff is demanding $230million as damages against PJT Partners UK for disclosing its sensitive information to competitors and an additional $8.94m as compensation for expenses it incurred as a result of the defendants’ bad faith.

    Petroleum Zion is seeking $10million as damages against ACA for unlawful interference with the plaintiff’s economic interests.

  • CJN, Ribadu to lawyers: fight corruption

    The Acting Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter S. N. Onnoghen, has  called for a collaborative effort in the fight against corruption.

    According to him, the fight should not be left to the government alone.

    He said organisations, institutions and professional bodies must act rather than remain silent about corruption.

    Justice Onnoghen spoke at the ninth  J-K Gadzama LLP Annual Public Lecture in Abuja  with the theme:  Corruption and the nation’s economy; lawyers as change agents.

    The Acting CJN, represented by Justice Musa Dettijo Mohammed,  praised Chief J-K Gadzama (SAN)  for  the lecture series, which has been on for almost a decade.

    He decried the devastating effect of corruption on the economy, saying: “If we do not arrest and eliminate this monster, it would consume our nation and we will not have any nation to bequeathe to our children and future generation.“

    He urged the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) as well as other relevant legal education and regulatory bodies “to educate our lawyers on their very important role as change agents”.

    The guest lecturer, pioneer Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC),  Mallam Nuhu Ribadu,  examined the concept  of corruption and the imperatives of fighting it.

    “I want to urge our legal practitioners to always put our legal code of ethics as your guiding light, set morality as your canvas and carry in your heart the public interest, to avoid harming yourself along with the larger society, as Lord Brougham cited above described.

    “We must take an active step in self-cleansing. We as lawyers should shun the attitude of playing the ostrich for self preservation. The NBA must be in the forefront of the current effort to cure the justice sector of the evil of corruption and in this there should be no sacred cows.

    “The talent commonly displayed by lawyers and their training place the lawyer at a comparative advantage for leadership roles, especially at important junctures of history.

    “A number of lawyers have played that role to the admiration of the world. Let’s look at our Mandela, lets look at Ghandi, lets look at Obama, as lawyers they altered the course of history. We all have similar traits in us. Lawyers are trained to be change agents, and we the Nigerian lawyers should not be any different,” Ribadu said.

    The paper was discussed by  the former Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice in Cross River State, Mrs. Nella Andem- Rabana (SAN),  Chairman of Civil Society Network Against Corruption, Mr. Olanrewaju Suraju and  Mrs Ozioma Izuora.

    Plateau State Governor,  Simon Bako Lalong sent his good will massage through Justice Chris Selong. Others, who gave goodwill massages at the event, included the Chief Judge of Federal High Court, Justice Ibrahim Auta, Chief Judge FCT High Court, Justice I. U. Bello, President, National Industrial Court, Justice Babatunde Adejumo, D-G Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (NIALS) Prof.Deji Adekunle and President, Law Media Justice and Society Initiative, Mr Charle  Odenigbo.

  • ‘Any judge guilty of bribery should be jailed’

    ‘Any judge guilty of bribery should be jailed’

    Justice Babasola Opeoluwa Ogunade retired from service 15 years ago. He was a legal practitioner in Lagos for years before he was appointed a judge in Ogun State in 1991.In this interview with ADEBISI ONANUGA, he speaks on corruption in the judiciary and how it should be tackled.

    THE vexed issue of corruption in the judiciary is the topical issue today. How do you react to this?

    Only today (Friday), I read in the newspapers about  people who condemned former Olusegun Obasanjo on  what he said about the National Assembly. Amazingly, quite a number of the commentators asked, ‘why single out the National Assembly for corruption’? That the National Assembly is not the only corrupt institution. But before this happened, it is like everybody in the country believes that it is a cess-pool of corruption. Everybody  commented on it.

    Corruption in the judiciary is even such that it amounts to insecurity in the country. How many people do we have in the National Assembly? A little over 300. Are they all corrupt? Are you talking of the institution being a corrupt? Or are you talking of the judiciary being a corrupt institution? Are you talking of its personnel? This is reason I believe that in this country, we are just taking advantage of the platform that we exercise our freedom.We are destroying ourselves. The judiciary is made up of human beings and it is not angels who are there. That is why in an institution, you will see all manners of people. But I humbly suggest you don’t because of that condemn the entire institution. Take away the judiciary in this country, what else do we have? We all have to resort to self-help, because I believe that is the alternative. As it is now, they all condemn the judiciary. With all the trouble going on in Ondo, where did they go? They still went to the same judiciary. Some were hailing what the Supreme Court had done, some were hailing what the Court of Appeal had done and some were saying the judiciary is the cause of problems in this country. I think it is wrong to condemn wholesale the judiciary. Yes, there may be individuals who corrupt the institution. I am not denying that. There might be individuals who did wrong. I am not defending them. I am not by any means defending anybody. But I think we should be careful about how we condemned the entire judiciary.

    I think this happened because people see judges as being next to God. They determine whether one should live or die. Then, a judge may have been seen to have taken bribe to deliver judgment. How do you react to that?

    I still say we should concentrate on individual cases.You don’t come and condemn the entire institution. You said it rightly, take away the judiciary, it is like you  have no other area to go. God has given so much power to the judiciary. That is why when a judge is appointed, he takes two oaths. One is the judiciary oath and the oath of allegiance to a state. In the judiciary oath, it says, ‘I am going to do justice to everybody irrespective of creed, tribe, and relationship, and I want to believe that nobody in his right senses will forget that undertaking. More importantly, I would tell you this. It is because in this country, oath taking is ceremonial.But if only people would remember, the judiciary oath is different because we are not just taking oath to mouth. You are taking your oath as an oath to God. But I made a practice of reminding them that because you are taking oath before God, that you are going to face the consequences if you give a false oath.  So, any judge who has taken an oath, to be honest in doing justice without ill-will, and without any consideration and goes back on it, will face the repercussion. Of course it is not because we all pay lip service to religion in this country.   In my view, it is not because we take oath as a matter of ceremony, which should not be, a judge does something that is wrong and you are able to ascertain that the man is corrupt. I can tell you one thing, the behaviour of people. I have experienced it. You are sitting in the chamber all by yourself. Your secretary is removed from you, the court is cut off. You are just seated by yourself in a room. A lawyer, what he is doing outside, you don’t know. He probably will tell his client, ‘oh, he is my friend, I know him. I will go and see him after’. He gets his client outside, he walks along the judge’s area, probably goes as far as where his secretary is, and then he goes back and tell his client, ‘haven’t I told you? I have fixed it. I have seen him for you, it is okay. Give me money to give him’. How does the judge know this?

    Are you in a way blaming lawyers for this?

    I am not blaming lawyers. I am telling you the practice. I am telling you how it happens. How does the judge know about this? Assuming that the lawyer goes back to his client and tells him I have fixed it? The judge didn’t know and has nothing to do with it. Now the judge hears the case and he gives judgment on merit. What is going to be the verdict of the man who has given money to give to the judge. Ha! That judge has taken money from the other person. In some cases, it happens.

    You have been there and must have gone through a lot.

    I saw it as a practising lawyer and as a judge.

    But was there ever a time that you came under pressure as ajudge?

    Of course yes.

    How did you manage the situation?

    In fact, anybody who attempts it knows that he is going to the wrong person. I’ll give you one live example. This happened in 1997. I was in a division in Ogun State and they have chieftaincy dispute and it has to do with kingship of that town. The throne has been vacant for many years. It happened that it is within the town of my own origin, even though I was not born there. But my father is from there and I was so close to that area. And the circumstances were such that you will need to persuade people that you have not been given some other considerations because the judiciary has no house of its own there. So, I lived in a rented accommodation and it is the son of the owner of that  accommodation that wants to be the king. I was in Lagos and I returned to the place and I came and found a letter written to me, saying it is all over the town that I have taken a bribe of N1 million. But remember that your father had a good name in this place. Your brother has a good name, we know them. So, don’t soil their nams. Return the N1 million to the person from whom you took it. I looked at the letter and said one or two things. That this is cheap blackmail or they just wanted to find a way of luring me to their side. I made up my mind that I have taken an oath that I was going to do justice to all manner of people and that I am not going to go outside the procedure of the court. I am the only high court judge in this area and the only one who can deal with this matter. I will tell the Chief Judge to transfer the case out of the division. The day that I resumed and saw the letter, I called all the lawyers involved – 16 of them – and read the letter to them and said to them, “Please feel free to apply that your case be taken away from here, but as for me, I am not going to excuse myself from this case. But if you apply under the rules that you don’t trust me to do the case, I would gladly allow you to go’. So, I left them and went to the open court. Each of them now said, sir, we would not deceive you, we were in town this morning and we heard it all over the place. One of them was a respectful person and older than me and many of them are from Lagos. That one now said, ‘Look, don’t let us tell you lies. Immediately we arrived and went to the place, we normally have our meal, they said you have just come to waste your time. The case has already been decided. The judge has taken N1 million. It is all over the place. He said he tried to persuade them that not that man, he wouldn’t take money from anybody, that they were only deceiving themselves’. He told them to go to court and see what would happen. Another of the lawyers was my own classmate at the Law School. And he said, ‘For how many years  have I known you? We knew you in practice and some of us that have appeared before you on the Bench, we knew you won’t take money from anybody. As for us, it is going to remain here’. And I said it is okay if you have so much confidence. I now went to the open court and read out the letter and interpreted it in Yoruba and told them, ‘if you don’t like it, take it away from here. It is only one case and I have several others to do. I have already told your lawyers’. They told me they were not taking the case away. ‘But you are their clients, apply for this case to be taken away. But one thing I can assure you is that chieftaincy disputes take up to five or six years. But this one here will not take up to a year because I have read the papers and I will use the rules of court to see that I get this done quickly’.

    Given your experience, what do you think would make a judge  to accept bribe?

    Greed. As simple as that. It is greed. Nothing else, particularly these days. I heard one or two judges complaining in the past. Judges who have had reputable practice, who are saying the judiciary is nothing. All that is there is prestige and name. But after you have done what you could do at the bar, you have gathered experience, you are now able to transfer it back to the bar for the improvement of the bar and for the good of the society. I am quite satisfied and I am sure that whatever I was earning, I have to cut my clothes according to my cloth. What I am unable to do, I am unable to do it. Finished. But you see, when you want to please everybody, where do you find yourself? This society does not help matters. They see you, they say he is a high court judge. The belief of everybody is that you are awash with money. They are doing that ceremony there, you are cordially invited. Donation will be kindly received. In some cases, if you give what you have, they would say, ‘Milord, we expect you to give more’. So, it is a question of you knowing who you are and knowing that at the end of it all, you will leave office. How do you want people to see you? Do you want people to respect you? But there are people who said, ‘I am a judge, I should live like a judge and throw away respectability’ and cut corners to maintain that self-ego status’. In my view, that is what they do. I don’t take bribe and I don’t know what makes them to take it. But these days, no judge has any business taking bribe.

    So, if they do, what should be done?

    I say that any judge who is adjudged to have taken bribe should be sent to jail. They should be sent to jail like any other person and dealt with as criminals because these days, I don’t see any reason for it. The service condition has improved and some states really went out of their way to make them really comfortable. So, why should any judge start taking bribe. What for? Except you are a greedy man or you have no fear of God. You take bribe, a person is wrong and you say he is right. Remember you are appearing before a judge where you don’t need any advocate, at the end of your days on earth, you won’t need an advocate before Him. It  is what is written down. I believe so much in the Bible. I think it is the Revelation that says that on the last day, two books would be presented. One would be open, the other would also be opened. If your name is not found in one, you are thrown into a lake of fire. I believe in it. I believe that hereafter, there is still judgment.

    Amid allegations of corruption against some judicial officers, including two Supreme Court Justices, the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) has set up a committee to review the code of conduct for judges. What kind of reforms would you want to see  in the new rules being considered?

    I want to suggest to the NJC to put judicial ethics in the forefront of their considerations. Look at the way recruitment is made into the bench. In my view, that is fundamental. Don’t let it be ethnic balancing. Don’t let it be state balancing. Appoint people to the bench purely on merit. Some states even go to the extent of asking people to apply. To me, it’s so ridiculous. You want to be a judge, you apply! It’s not done.

    So, how were you appointed a judge?

    Look at this. That is my patent letter. (He showed the document). When I was appointed a judge in 1991, that was the only thing I had when I was appointed a judge. I didn’t have any letter stating conditions of service. That one was signed by Gen Ibrahim Babangida because he was the president then. I didn’t have a letter stating that I would be entitled to N5,000 a month as salary.You will be given free accommodation because it is the norm. I don’t have a letter telling me that I would be given a loan to buy a house. I went there without a letter. The only other letter that came was the letter from the Chief Judge, saying that he had been directed to inform me that I had been appointed a judge. ‘Congratulations. The day of your swearing in would be announced’. That is what I had. It was like taking a blind letter. But having taken it  and having known that the constitution bars me from practising again, from appearing before a judge, I appreciated the sacrifice, the enormous sacrifice that I was call upon to make. I have an option to say, ‘thank you very much, I don’t want it’. I think I must say this and I am not saying anything immodestly that I didn’t apply to be a judge. If anything at all, it was offered to me three solid times and I rejected it on each occasion. The fourth time it now happened, it was like a blackmail. We were at an occasion with my wife, where some judges of Ogun State were present and they called me and said, ‘come Mr Ogunade, we understand that they invited you to come and be a judge and you are bluffing us. You think you are the best lawyer in Ogun State. It’s just that we see something in you that we think you should contribute to the Bench and she was there’. Another one called her and said, ‘madam, are you the one that said your husband should not join this group of poor people’. And she said she knew nothing about it. My uncle was sitting by and he said, ‘you’ve heard with your ears, that people were inviting you to come, go and consider it’. And I said, ‘okay, I would fulfil all righteousness. Do I need to bring a CV’ – the CV was just half a page. But they said even if you just put your name, it is enough to consider you. Which was what I did. But they made a futile attempt the first time but I wasn’t taken.

    So, how were you finally appointed?

    The Chief Judge called me and said am  angry and I said I wasn’t. I want to let you know one thing that I enjoyed my practice as a lawyer. It gives me all the freedom. It isn’t so much about the money I make, but it gives me the freedom to do what I want to do. It enables me to really contribute to the society. I know the amount of free cases that I did, what they now call pro bono. The number that we were doing in our chamber, the number I have handled freely but I enjoyed it.  So, he said this is a real thing and you have to come to the Bench but I said, ‘you have tried sir but don’t do it again, I am not coming’. Not too long after that, a vacancy occurred. He didn’t ask me any thing. All I knew was that one day, I had a case in Ikeja, my chamber was in Igbosere. I returned to the chamber that day only to find a crowd in the chamber and I was asking those in our front office that what is happening here. ‘Milord, you’ve been appointed a judge’ and I said which judge? I didn’t apply for one. And that was it and that was how it came. And I was pleading with people that don’t announce it because people are owing me money. The moment they realised that I have been appointed a judge, they won’t pay me any more.

    There is a trend now in the judiciary that wasn’t there in the past; books being launched in honour of sitting judges. Is it not capable of prejudicing a judge?

    I think the CJN who has just retired gave a directive that there should be no book launch for a sitting judge. You may, as a judge, want to put your experience on paper. You don’t launch it. If you have the fund to print the thing, print it and distribute it freely. But  for a sitting judge,  again I tell you this, many times you find that these books are written in the name of a sitting judge. I have seen it happen. The judge might not even get one quarter of the proceed. Some people will get themselves organised, they would write it, commercialise it and corner all the money. So, if you don’t want to find yourself in an embarrassing situation, don’t permit it. Wait, if God gives you life and you retire, you can put all your experience on paper.

    How do you see the anti-corruption campaign of President Buhari?

    A lot of people give it all sorts of name. But let’s look at the short time that he was Head of State.  Between 1984 and 1985, what was his mantra then? What exactly did he do? It was when you find that people are being clamped into jail for 84 years, 60 years and that kind of things. On what grounds? On grounds of corruption. He was able to do that  as a military man. It may well be that he still has the vestiges of the military in him. Those who know him will be able to tell. I don’t know him. But from what they put in the papers, he was not a wealthy man. He has been head of state, albeit for 18 months. Within that period, he has the opportunity of amassing wealth, ‘be my front, be the director of the man,  you be my front, go and be the managing director of an oil company and when he comes out’, he would not be swimming in money. At the beginning, he did say he is going to fight corruption head long. Isn’t corruption really killing us in this country? If a man comes and says this is what I am going to do and he works on available facts available to him, why do you now say he is just an unforgiving man. Now there is this big one they are talking about, the matter is in court and we should be careful not to comment on them. But allegations are being made. Money that should have been used in buying weapons were distributed all over the place. Is it a fact that that money was there? Is it a fact that the money was distributed? If that is the truth, should he now fold his hands and do nothing about it. They did say he was doing it only at the federal level, he has not done it on state level. I am not an EFCC man but I believe that the EFCC works on information. If the states have not approached the EFCC, if a new governor has not approached the EFCC, to say that my predecessor has stolen all the money in this place, how does it become the duty of Buhari to start probing into the states? Are there separation of functions between federal and state?  For me, I will support anything he does within the law to stem corruption in this country.

    I just want to believe that we should comment on facts that are available. Some of our comments are really so political, and some are just anti-nationalistic. We find a disease that is destroying us, somebody is doing something about it and we are all condemning him.

    What is your view on targets given to judges as regards cases being handled in courts?

    Where a judge is lazy, you will know. If, for instance, a judge says he is only able to deliver two judgments, he has a query. If he is only able to deliver two judgments, he should explain why this is so. But because they now give targets, judges say they must deliver, ‘I must deliver at all cost’. People come before them, ‘he says no, no. I can’t wait, I can’t adjourn’. He goes on to do shoddy work, they now shift the congestion from the high court to the Appeal Court. The NJC itself sends queries to them in the high court, ‘let’s know the number of cases you have done irrespective of whether the cases you have done are thoroughly done or not’. I think the NJC should re-examine itself. They should not make the judiciary and the high courts look like a factory where they do mass production. In my view, that’s what it is because when you say, ‘tell me the number of cases you’ve had, how long it takes to take a trial in the high court’. No matter how much it is, no matter how little it is, it would take the best of three to four months. Even if it is a summary trial in a civil case, it takes up to four months to deal with it. And you are now asking me to produce mass production! That is not how a court should be. It should be concerneds with quality and justice in what you are doing. The NJC should review itself. The NJC should act as a judicial institution not as political institution. The politicians might say what they want but we are the ones who know what is involved. You can’t ask them to do shoddy work all because we want mass production. If you are not a lazy man, you will know how much you can really do.

    What do you have to say about the underfunding of the judiciary which has been recurring over the past years? How can this be overcome?

    It is a constitutional provision but they allow everybody to do what they want to subvert the provisions of the constitution. These days, a chief judge would go cap in hand to the  governor and the governor would bluff him, saying, ‘I don’t have money for this or that’. If you want quality judiciary, you pay for it. You can’t get it on the cheap. Pay those who are doing the work and stop them from looking over their shoulder. Pay them what is due to them. If after you’ve done that and anybody looks over his shoulder, let him go and face the music in the court. I must admit there are some states which do whatever they can to make their judges comfortable. But by and large, quite  a number of Chief judges would have to go to the governor, cap in hand. But they bluff them. When a judge would have to sit in his house without light and you now expect him to deliver judgment. After everybody had talked and they have gone home, he doesn’t have a research officer, he is the only one left in the chamber to look at all the evidences that have been led, to look at the cases cited before him and see whether the lawyer who has presented a case is not being mischievous. He has to look for law reports before he can make a judgment and he hasn’t been given the facility. How does he perform? You now ask them to deliver so much judgments. It is ridiculous. I think the NJC itself is being political.

  • Lagos commissioner named Arbitrators’ fellow

    Lagos commissioner named Arbitrators’ fellow

    The Lagos State Commissioner  for Establishments, Training and Pensions, Dr Akintola Benson Oke, has been named a fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Chartered Arbitrators.

    He was among those admitted by the institute during 2015/2016 investiture and award held in Lagos.

    Akintola, a lawyer, political scientist and public policy expert with over 23 years experience, is also a member of the Institute of Management, Institute of Directors of Nigeria, Nigerian Political Science Association, and a full member of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs.

    An alumnus of the University of Lagos (UNILAG) and the Lagos State University (LASU), he holds Bachelor  degrees in Law and in Political Science, as well as a Ph.D in Political Science.

    In 1992, he was appointed a Senior Special Assistant (Political Affairs) to Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who was chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriations, Finance and Banking.

    He was later appointed Senior Special Assistant (Media Relations) to Tinubu when he was Lagos State governor.

    Akintola also served as Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Policy, Politics and Law.

    He was the pioneer National Financial Secretary of the Action Congress (AC), now All Progressives Congress (APC).

    Akintola’s ministry is a core human resource management agency saddled with human capital development, career management, institutional/organisational policy reforms, among others.

    Its vision is to be the leading government agency reputed for providing an enabling and progressive environment for the development of a result-oriented public service.

    Akintola said more use of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) mechanisms, such as arbitration, would help drive economic development and guarantee social harmony.

    According to him, the regular courts were no longer the best option in resolving disputes due to the long and tedious process and number of years it takes to decide cases.

    He described arbitration as a consensual process by which the parties of a dispute submit their differences to one or more impartial parties who gives an award which is final and binding on the parties.

    Arbitration, Akintola said, is substantially less formal than court proceedings, with hearings conducted in private.

    He said parties were free to choose their own arbitrator or arbitrators, rules and procedures, and can also decide on the venue of their arbitration.

    He said in arbitration, confidentiality is ensured and the disputes are expeditiously resolved in a practical manner.

  • The young lawyer as mirror of Nigerian Bar

    The young lawyer as mirror of Nigerian Bar

    Former House of Representatives member Michael Opeyemi Bamidele is engaged in multi-jurisdictional practice as an Attorney and Counsellor-at-Law of the State of New York. In this article, he examines the plight of young lawyers and the future of the legal profession.

    Introduction

    In recent times and as one legal year rolls into another, many conversations among lawyers are centered on the young lawyers and their welfare. This has also coincided with the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) elections wherein many of the candidates seem to be making the issue of the welfare of the young lawyers a central focus of their campaign.

    For the young lawyers, today represents mixed circumstances. The legal industry is more exciting and dynamic than ever, with technology bringing about rapid change in the practice of law as well as new opportunities. On the other hand, young lawyers face extraordinary competition for a shrinking number of jobs, and uncertainty about career goals. This writing aims to explore the opportunities and challenges facing young lawyers, how they are being leveraged and addressed, and some practical advice for achieving success and forging ahead together as members of the Nigerian Bar Association.

    There is no overstating the importance of those we consider ‘young lawyers’ to the profession. It would matter less what perspective you approach the issue from or what school of thought you belong to, in order to agree that the young lawyer represents the present state of the profession as well as reflects its future.

    Many years ago, the Bar looked to its younger generation, the crop of young lawyers, as its future. The young lawyers of the days past are now the stakeholders at the Bar. The future has become the present. The Bar had nurtured its young talents, cut the rough stones into shiny diamonds and had converted the raw school leavers of yesteryears into the brilliant, experienced society shakers and movers who the Bar can boast of today. What is the future of today’s Bar? The young lawyer.

    Because of perspective variations, it may be difficult to define who a ‘young lawyer’ really is. The American Bar Association (Young Lawyers Division) for the purpose of its scholarship program defines “a “young lawyer,” as any licensed attorney who is under the age of thirty-six or who has been licensed for no more than five years.” However, for the purpose of this discourse, an all encompassing definition of the term which most people seem to agree upon, and which fits correctly with the Nigerian situation is one below 30-35 years bracket or any lawyer less than 10 years post-call.

    It is easy to create a mental image of a young lawyer in Nigeria today as that impressionable young man you saw in his dark suit and bar white shirt while driving past Obalende bridge on your way to work in Victoria Island, Lagos; or that smartly dressed lady by the roadside at Berger bridge in Abuja hurrying to Wuse where her office is located; or even still, as that lawyer who makes an appearance in Court with a senior practitioner. The myriad of mental images that could be conjured when the phrase “young lawyer” is mentioned are endless. I would however be discussing the young lawyer from the perspective which considers the challenges confronting them and as the reflection of what the future of the legal profession holds for Nigeria.

    In my article titled ‘Lawyers and National Development’ published in ‘The Guardian’ on Thursday, August 20, last year, I raised a very important question which was directed at the leadership and the senior members of the Nigerian Bar. Again, the question is: “… how does our Bar Association remain relevant to the younger generations of attorneys?” This question brings to fore, the many challenges that the Bar must first understand, and then look to tackle with respect to the future of a rapidly evolving profession and the preparation of those who would be tasked with the responsibilities of taking over in the coming years.

    Considering the strategic position of the young lawyers on the professional pyramid, how do we communicate with them? How do we recognise and value what they bring to the profession? And more importantly, how do we convey to them the many significant benefits that participation in the Bar association can provide over the course of one’s legal career? These questions form the bedrock of all that the leaders of the Bar need to understand in order to put the present and the future of the Bar into proper perspective vis-à-vis the participation of today’s young lawyers.

    The challenges that face today’s young lawyer in his quest for success in the profession are enormous and the Bar should start answering the difficult questions if there are to be any meaningful legacies left for the stakeholders of the Bar tomorrow. It will be difficult to attempt to thoroughly address all the probable challenges a young lawyer faces in everyday practice. However, some of the most identifiable are highlighted below.

     

    Challenges facing the

    young lawyer

    Unemployment: Every year, the six campuses of the Nigerian Law School churn out between 2,000 and 4,000 new lawyers into the already saturated labour market. We may argue that almost all lawyers find an employment one way or another, but the truth is that most are under-employed. Under-employment of the young lawyers leads to crisis of confidence, financial challenges, disillusionment and possibly a total lack of passion for the profession together with all it portends.

    Inadequate Remuneration: The legal profession has had to grapple with the lingering debate on the remuneration of young lawyers and ways to make it better. Two major schools of thought developed from the debates. One is the school that believes a minimum wage of some sort should be introduced by the NBA by which employers of young lawyers would be mandated to comply with so that the young lawyers will not be driven away from the profession for reasons of insufficient allowances. A prominent voice of this position is J.K. Gadzama (SAN). The other school of thought whose prominent proponents include Prof. Epiphany Azinge (SAN), formerly of the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (NIALS) and Adeniyi Akintola (SAN) strongly disagrees with the institutionalisation of a minimum wage within the legal profession citing, among other reasons, the fact that law firms are privately owned and it would be illogical to enforce a minimum wage for private practitioners.

    Whichever school of thought you are aligned with, there is a common ground, and that is the fact that most young lawyers are improperly and/or insufficiently remunerated. Both schools of thought agree that this is a major problem for the profession but merely disagree on the methods with which to combat the problem. If, however, we would be able to build a strong legal profession for the years to come through these young lawyers, all hands must be on deck to find creative and lasting solutions to the clearly identified problem.

    Lack of Globalised Practice Orientation: All over the world, especially among the big players, law firms are continually structured based on the partnership model. They even go further to merge in order to increase expertise and capacity. This practice is advantageous because of its immense contribution to the multi-jurisdictional strength of many of the foreign law firms. Clifford Chance, Allen and Overy, Linklaters, Baker and Mackenzie, Herbert Smith Freehills, Hogan Lovells and other legal powerhouses are testaments to this fact. In Nigeria however, with the exception of law firms in Lagos and a handful of law firms in other major cities, most practitioners operate as small law firms. This has its own unique advantages and it may adequately serve the purposes of the owners of these small law firms, but the Nigerian legal market by implication is put at a distinct disadvantage to the mega firms who will always have an upper hand in a globalised practice.

    The young lawyer is raised, tutored and mentored under this small firm orientation which may not be of great advantage to him/her in the structure of global lawyering in the years to come.

    Mentoring: A major challenge for the young lawyer in today’s practice is acquiring proper mentorship. One of the salient reasons why this has suddenly become a challenge is the sheer increase in the number of lawyers called to the Bar every year.

    One can argue that the quality of professional mentoring that today’s top practitioners received is no more as easily accessible to the young lawyer as it was in time past.

    Albert Einstein said, “Once you stop learning you start dying”. This cannot be truer, especially in a profession where the learning process never ends. Fortunately, the Nigerian Bar Association has continually acknowledged the importance of mentoring for young lawyers, but in spite of these efforts, there remains a significant lot to be achieved in this regard.

    Networking: Nearly everyone would agree that in a profession where client engagement and relationship with fellow professionals are key, networking automatically becomes an important aspect of the practice. The young lawyer of today, unfortunately, is not usually found with the requisite emotional intelligence required for this exercise nor has the wherewithal to execute any meaningful network due to the large gulf between the senior practitioner and the young lawyer in the profession today.

    Generational Shift and Globalisation in the Legal Profession: The State Bar of Wisconsin, USA issued a report in 2011 on the Challenges facing the legal profession’. This report captured the following:  “Patrick Lamb, who writes and speaks about the change taking place in the profession in the ABA Journal’s “The New Normal” blog, observes that lawyers suffer from an incredible lack of interest in understanding the forces that are changing the foundation of the profession. To succeed in this new reality, attorneys need to keep abreast of the changes so that they are prepared to assist, counsel, and advise their clients. Lawyers also must be aware of these challenges so they can take advantage of the opportunities for those prepared for what lies ahead.”

    This aptly captures or properly brings into perspective the new order in the legal profession in just a few words.

    The Nigerian Bar needs to recognise that the world as a global village is telling on the way all professions are being practiced worldwide. The legal profession is not left out of this globalisation process, neither is Nigeria. Unavoidably, the globalisation of the world economy comes with the demand for efficient cross-border legal services. As the legal profession moves towards a globalised practice, what measures are being put in place by the Nigerian Bar Association to ensure that the average practitioner can follow and tailor his practice towards the new and innovative global trends in the profession? What legacies are being built by today’s practitioners to ensure that tomorrow’s practitioners would be able to favourably compete with their counterparts on the global stage in the few decades to come and at every turn in history?

    We must recognise the big role technology would play in the future of the legal profession and as such, create new opportunities for young lawyers. The trend in the near future will be of legal careers being technologically driven. This trend will in turn lead to more efficient and probably less costly legal services. As a result, we need to equip the young lawyers from their very entry into the law faculties, so that they can match global competition. For example, the snail speed at which litigation is usually practised will give way for a more efficient and technologically driven system. We definitely must find solutions and continue to move past the era where cases are litigated for over a decade.

    On the internet nowadays, High tech companies already take advantage of online services that help clients to create their own legal documents. One can only imagine the evolution of this aspect of legal practice in the next decade or two.

     

    Solutions and recommendations to the Nigerian Bar Association

    It is the belief among those who are regarded as ‘young lawyers’ that many young lawyers are ready to explore the new legal initiatives but are not given the opportunities. Many also carry the impression that the Nigerian Legal System today has not and is not doing much towards helping young lawyers.

    The Nigerian Bar Association is, therefore, called to duty to awaken the Council of Legal Education, the Body of Benchers and the stakeholders of the legal profession at large to the realities of this raging issue to ensure that the future of the legal profession in Nigeria continues to look bright rather than the dim realities that have been identified.

    The stakeholders in the profession also need to consider both arguments on either side of the debate for better remuneration of young lawyers, and to come up with a lasting solution to the menace of insufficient remuneration. Failure to do this will leave the legal profession in a brain drain situation whereby our best young lawyers are sucked into sectors that have little or nothing to do with legal practice in so far as the ‘price is right’.

    Mentoring of young lawyers needs to be reinforced as a major cardinal program of the NBA. More programs should be organised to create a melting pot where both old and young practitioners can better interact on the platform of the NBA. The law firms that have been strategically involved in mentoring of law school students and young lawyers should be applauded and even more law firms should be encouraged and supported to get involved.

    In the law schools and the universities, skills such as critical reading and thinking should be taught and the students should be tested on these. Making extensive use of the current applicable technology, other skills such as legal analysis, effective research skills, oral and written communication, fact investigation and collaboration are skills which, when taught or merged with the existing curriculum, instill a confident approach to the practice of law. The young lawyer rather than graduating from the law school with a head full of statutes and principles can also be trusted to have garnered enough skills to help in maximising and utilising the raw knowledge of legal principles.

    There is a Yoruba proverb loosely translated to mean that the wisdom of both the young and old contributed to the building of the ancient city of Ile-Ife. Communication should be enhanced among the  senior and young lawyers. This will enable either party to learn from each other. In order to achieve this, more avenues need to be created by the NBA where the older and the younger members of the Bar can mingle and better interact.

    In order to meet up with globalization of legal practice, firms should be encouraged to embrace the structures used by the most successful law firms worldwide, merge where necessary and move towards a more technology compliant practice as these are the only ways Nigerian firms would be able to favourably compete with their counterparts globally in the future.

    The practice of law has gone beyond seeking court appearances and advocacy. In order to survive, therefore, a young lawyer should seek to carve out a niche for himself after getting grounded properly. Networking, technology awareness and ability to see beyond the narrow confines of law are now some of the most necessary tools for the young lawyer.

     

    Conclusion

    What new skills will lawyers need in the coming decades? This is, rightly, an important question of late, and for good reasons earlier enumerated. Law firms are questioning the preparedness of new graduates and new wigs; the stale curricula of the law faculties and the Law School are being spotlighted. The profession is struggling to re-orient to an unknown future.

    A recent roundtable discussion hosted by the Guardian (UK) and held in association with The University of Law, on the state of legal education in the UK revealed that ”the more economically globalised the world becomes, the more it needs globalised legal services, which means more career opportunities for law graduates willing to work in other countries and across jurisdictions.”

    In addition to gaining multi-jurisdictional expertise and qualifications, continuous training and personal update will be some of the greatest assets and lawyers must develop their skills throughout their career, in a fast-changing, increasingly globalised world, where legal education and training must evolve as the demands of the world around it changes.

    The young lawyer of today must be properly equipped to face the challenges of tomorrow. The stakeholders are hereby called into urgent action to save the future of the legal profession. The Nigerian Bar Association must also realize its central role in properly charting a course for the practice of law in the future through the empowerment of the young lawyers. They have a tremendous opportunity to shape the future of our profession, and the time to act is now.

    The young lawyer represents the realities confronting the Bar today and, more than anything else, embodies the future of the profession, together with the unfolding global trends. Considering this strategic placement of the young practitioner in the pyramid of legal practice, it would be very appropriate to hold the young lawyer as the mirror of the Nigerian Bar.